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A fastener or fastening is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together. In general, fasteners are used to create non-permanent joints; that is, joints that can be removed or dismantled without damaging the joining components. Welding is an example of creating permanent joints. Steel fasteners are usually made of stainless steel, carbon steel, or alloy steel.

A washer is a thin plate with a hole that is normally used to distribute the load of a threaded fastener, such as a bolt or nut. Other uses are as a spacer, spring, wear pad, preload indicating device, locking device, and to reduce vibration. Washers often have an outer diameter (OD) about twice their inner diameter (ID), but this can vary quite widely.

## Contents

The USS standard is no longer supported. It, together with the SAE fastener standard, was incorporated into the Unified Thread Standard. However, the term, USS, continues to be used occasionally today to describe inch based threaded fasteners with a coarse thread pitch and inch based washers that are a little bit larger than the corresponding SAE washer. The Unified Thread Standard uses the term UNC (Unified Coarse) to describe a fastener that previously would have been designated USS and the Unified Thread Standard uses the term UNF (Unified Fine) to describe a fastener that would have previously been designated SAE.

SAE International, initially established as the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a U.S.-based, globally active professional association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. Principal emphasis is placed on transport industries such as automotive, aerospace, and commercial vehicles.

The Unified Thread Standard (UTS) defines a standard thread form and series—along with allowances, tolerances, and designations—for screw threads commonly used in the United States and Canada. It is the main standard for bolts, nuts, and a wide variety of other threaded fasteners used in these countries. It has the same 60° profile as the ISO metric screw thread, but the characteristic dimensions of each UTS thread were chosen as an inch fraction rather than a millimeter value. The UTS is currently controlled by ASME/ANSI in the United States.

The thread form is defined by flats at the tip and root of the thread form. This flat length is defined as the pitch divided by eight. The thread depth, which is from flat to flat is 0.6495 times the pitch. [3] For 14-inch (6.4 mm) screws and larger, the pitch is defined as:

${\displaystyle P=0.24{\sqrt {D+0.625}}-0.175}$

where P is the pitch and D is the diameter of the rough stock. [1]

## History and use

William Sellers originally developed the USS thread, and set forth many of its details in his paper, "A System of Screw Threads and Nuts", presented in April 1864 to the Franklin Institute. In 1898, the standard for metric threaded fasteners was established. [4] The metric standard used the same thread geometry as the USS standard but differed in that the dimensions and pitch were based on metric units. In 1906, the A.L.A.M developed what would be the SAE thread standard for threaded fasteners based on the USS standard but with a finer thread pitch. [5] [6]

William Sellers was a mechanical engineer, manufacturer, businessman, and inventor who filed more than 90 patents, most notably the design for the United States standard screw thread. As president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sellers proposed the adoption of a system of screw threads which was easier for ordinary mechanics and machinists to cut than a similar design by Joseph Whitworth. For many years, he led the machine tool firm of William Sellers & Co., which was a very influential machine tool builder during the latter half of the 19th century.

The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman, Benjamin Franklin, and houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Founded in 1824, the Franklin Institute is one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States.

The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM), originally the Manufacturer's Mutual Association (MMA), was an organization originally formed to challenge the litigation of the fledgling automobile industry by George B. Selden and the Electric Vehicle Company. Ultimately, the organization took advantage of its power and became Selden's greatest ally. In exchange for favorable royalty rates, the group gained the power to litigate and exclude other manufacturers from licensing, making them the most powerful group in the early automotive industry.

## Related Research Articles

American National Standard Pipe Thread standards, often called national pipe thread standards for short, are U.S. national technical standards for screw threads used on threaded pipes and pipe fittings. They include both tapered and straight thread series for various purposes including rigidity, pressure-tight sealing, or both. The various types are each named with a symbol and a full name; examples of the symbols include NPT, NPS, NPTF, NPSC, and others.

Bolted joints are one of the most common elements in construction and machine design. They consist of fasteners that capture and join other parts, and are secured with the mating of screw threads.

A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called a tapered thread. A screw thread is the essential feature of the screw as a simple machine and also as a fastener.

British Standard Whitworth (BSW) is an imperial-unit-based screw thread standard.

British Association screw threads, or BA screw threads, are a largely obsolete set of small screw threads, the largest being 0BA at 6 mm diameter. They were, and to some extent still are, used for miniature instruments and modelling.

Trapezoidal thread forms are screw thread profiles with trapezoidal outlines. They are the most common forms used for leadscrews. They offer high strength and ease of manufacture. They are typically found where large loads are required, as in a vise or the leadscrew of a lathe. Standardized variations include multiple-start threads, left-hand threads, and self-centering threads.

British Standard Brass or British Brass Thread is an imperial unit based screw thread. It adopts the Whitworth thread form with a pitch of 26 threads per inch and a thread angle of 55 degrees for all diameters. It is often wrongly called British Standard Brass but is not actually covered by a British Standard.

The ISO metric screw threads are the worldwide most commonly used type of general-purpose screw thread. They were one of the first international standards agreed when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up in 1947.

Computer case screws are the hardware used to secure parts of a PC to the case. Although there are numerous manufacturers of computer cases, they have generally used three thread sizes. The Unified Thread Standard (UTS) originates from the United States, while the ISO metric screw thread is standardized worldwide. In turn, these thread standards define preferred size combinations that are based on generic units—some on the inch and others on the millimetre.

A screw is a type of fastener, in some ways similar to a bolt, typically made of metal, and characterized by a helical ridge, known as a male thread. Screws are used to fasten materials by digging in and wedging into a material when turned, while the thread cuts grooves in the fastened material that may help pull fastened materials together and prevent pull-out. There are many screws for a variety of materials; those commonly fastened by screws include wood, sheet metal, and plastic.

A nut is a type of fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used in conjunction with a mating bolt to fasten multiple parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretching of the bolt, and compression of the parts to be held together.

ISO 898 is an international standard that defines mechanical and physical properties for metric fasteners. This standard is the origin for other standards that define properties for similar metric fasteners, such as SAE J1199 and ASTM F568M. It is divided into five (nonconsecutive) parts:

ASTM A325 is an ASTM International standard for heavy hex structural bolts, titled Standard Specification for Structural Bolts, Steel, Heat Treated, 120/105 ksi Minimum Tensile Strength. It defines mechanical properties for bolts that range from 12 to 1 12 inches in diameter.

ISO 965 is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard for metric screw thread tolerances. It specifies the basic profile for ISO general purpose metric screw threads (M) conforming to ISO 261.

A bolt is a form of threaded fastener with an external male thread. Bolts are closely related to screws.

A hex key, Allen wrench or Allen key, is a tool used to drive bolts and screws with hexagonal sockets in their heads. The Allen name is a registered trademark, originated by the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut circa 1910, and currently owned by Apex Tool Group, LLC. Its genericised use is discouraged by this company. The standard generic name used in catalogues and published books and journals is "hex key".

The Löwenherz thread is a largely obsolete metric thread form designed in the late nineteenth century and frequently applied in precision instruments. It is named after Dr. Leopold Löwenherz, who was the director of the metrology institute Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin.

## References

1. Adt, Howard. Screw Thread Production to Close Limits. p. 7. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
2. "History of screw threads" . Retrieved 2011-04-24.
3. American Railway Master Mechanics' Association (1916). Report of proceedings of the annual convention of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association. 49. American Railway Master Mechanics' Association. p. 71.
4. Oberg, Erik; Jones, Franklin D.; McCauley, Christopher J.; Heald, Ricardo M. (2004), Machinery's Handbook (27th ed.), Industrial Press, p. 1726, ISBN   978-0-8311-2700-8.
5. The Society of Automobile Engineers 1912 Transactions Part II, pages 43-44 . Retrieved 2009-01-17.
6. Browning's Industrial Magazine, page 590. The Browning Press. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
7. Oberg (1988). Machinery's Handbook 23rd edition. p. 1479.
8. National Bureau of Standards. "Screw-Thread Standards for Federal Services, pages 10-12" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-01-16.