What material can you use to make micro screws? What should you consider when selecting micro screws for your next project? These are some of the questions that technicians who assemble various products ask themselves when trying to find an ideal kind of custom screw for their work.
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This post presents to you significant considerations to make when selecting the kind of material that you will use in making your micro screws. It also highlights the popular types of materials used in the making of custom screws.
The screw concept is over two millennia old. The idea started at around 200 B.C. Since then screws have been serving a wide array of industrial applications in fastening and holding components of products together. Without these fasteners, your cell phone, tablet, and many other equipment and accessories will fall apart. But what material makes up a perfect micro screw?
Here are the material characteristics that you should consider to improve and quicken your micro screw sourcing results.
When choosing a material for micro screws, you should consider whether the screws environment will be corrosive. Materials with high corrosion resistance such as steel are ideal for micro screws that will likely get exposed to corrosive conditions.
Some metals are brittle and easy to bend and scratch. When such metals get used in making screws, it becomes hard to screw or unscrew some tight miniature screws. As such, you should look at the specific alloy strength of a material to determine whether the material can bear with various damaging forces.
Aesthetics is the least important factor when compared to screw strength and durability. But it’s also essential where screws get used on prominent decorative pieces or devices. For example, a copper custom screw or copper-plated screw may have a better appearance when used on a prominent place than would be the case for a steel custom screw used in the same place.
When choosing a material to make a micro screw, you should also look at the material’s ability to get processed with ease. Things to look at should include the strength of the material to be cold-headed, welded, or machined.
The value of the metallic alloy to make the micro screws gets determined by considering factors such as the effective life-expectancy of the finished screws, the installed price, and the initial alloy cost. When materials match in strength, durability, fabrication needs, and mechanical properties, then cost, and aesthetics become the second-last considerations to make.
The availability of the material is the last consideration to make. No matter how good a material is in making micro screws, if you can’t find the material in enough quantities, then you’re less likely to choose such material for your micro screw fabrication.
You can make micro screws from various materials, but steel is the most used material.
Steel is the most affordable and abundant micro fastener making material. It comes in various forms, which include black oxide steel, case hardened steel, nickel-plated steel, and stainless steel, among others. Steel is a versatile material that you can combine with other metals to create durable alloys. Minerals that you can use to make steel alloys include silicon, cobalt, tungsten, copper, molybdenum, nickel, chromium, and manganese. Steel is hard, malleable, and durable.
Apart from steel, you can also make miniature screws from metals such as titanium, Monel, aluminum, brass, copper, and austenitic.
Your custom screw material options are extensive. But the primary considerations to make when choosing materials include cost, aesthetics, availability, corrosion, and mechanical properties. Make careful considerations when selecting material for your micro screws by factoring in the issues cited in this post. Proper care will get you the best micro screws for your project.