Lead screw

Three types of screw thread used in leadscrews:

3 & 4: buttress thread
5: round thread
6: square thread
Floppy disc drive with leadscrew and stepper motor.

A leadscrew (or lead screw), also known as a power screw[1] or translation screw,[2] is a screw used as

a linkage in a machine, to translate turning motion into linear motion. Because of the large area of sliding
contact between their male and female members, screw threads have larger frictional energy losses compared
to other linkages. They are not typically used to carry high power, but more for intermittent use in low power
actuator and positioner mechanisms. Common applications are linear actuators, machine slides (such as
in machine tools), vises, presses, and jacks.[3]

Leadscrews are manufactured in the same way as other thread forms (they may be rolled, cut, or ground).

A lead screw can be used in conjunction with a split nut.

Types
Power screws are classified by the geometry of their thread. V-threads are less suitable for leadscrews than
others such as Acme because they have more friction between the threads. Their threads are designed to
induce this friction to keep the fastener from loosening. Leadscrews, on the other hand, are designed to
minimize friction.[4] Therefore, in most commercial and industrial use, V-threads are avoided for leadscrew use.
Nevertheless, V-threads are sometimes successfully used as leadscrews, for example on microlathes and
micromills.[5]
Square thread
Square threads are named after their square geometry. They are the most efficient, having the least friction, so
they are often used for screws that carry high power. But they are also the most difficult to machine, and are
thus the most expensive.

Acme thread[

An Acme screw

Acme threads have a 29° thread angle, which is easier to machine than square threads. They are not as
efficient as square threads, due to the increased friction induced by the thread angle. [3]

Buttress thread
Buttress threads are of a triangular shape. These are used where the load force on the screw is only applied in
one direction.[6] They are as efficient as square threads in these applications, but are easier to manufacture.

Characteristics[edit]
A leadscrew nut and screw mate with rubbing surfaces, and consequently they have a relatively
high friction and stiction compared to mechanical parts which mate with rolling surfaces and bearings.
Leadscrew efficiency is typically between 25 and 70%, with higher pitch screws tending to be more efficient. A
higher performing but more expensive alternative is the ball screw.

The high internal friction means that leadscrew systems are not usually capable of continuous operation at high
speed, as they will overheat. Due to inherently high stiction, the typical screw is self-locking (i.e. when stopped,
a linear force on the nut will not apply atorque to the screw) and are often used in applications where
backdriving is unacceptable, like holding vertical loads or in hand cranked machine tools.

Leadscrews are typically used well greased, but, with an appropriate nut, they may be run dry with somewhat
higher friction. There is often a choice of nuts, and manufacturers will specify screw and nut combination as a
set.

The mechanical advantage of a leadscrew is determined by the screw pitch and lead. For multi-start screws the
mechanical advantage is lower, but the traveling speed is higher. [7]
Backlash can be reduced with the use of a second nut, or a tensioning spring, to create a static loading force
known as preload; alternately, the nut can be cut across its diameter and preloaded by clamping that cut back
together.

A leadscrew with a sufficiently high helix angle can back drive: forces on the nut applied parallel to such a
leadscrew will cause the leadscrew, if it is not otherwise held in place, to rotate. Such a tendency to backdrive
depends on the thread helix angle, coefficient of friction of the interface of the components (screw/nut) and the
included angle of the thread form. In general, a steel acme thread and bronze nut will back drive when the helix
angle of the thread is greater than 20°.

Advantages & disadvantages

The advantages of a leadscrew are:[2]

 Large load carrying capability

 Compact

 Simple to design

 Easy to manufacture; no specialized machinery is required

 Large mechanical advantage

 Precise and accurate linear motion

 Smooth, quiet, and low maintenance

 Minimal number of parts

 Most are self-locking

The disadvantages are that most are not very efficient. Due to the low efficiency they cannot be used in
continuous power transmission applications. They also have a high degree for friction on the threads, which
can wear the threads out quickly. For square threads, the nut must be replaced; for trapezoidal threads, asplit
nut may be used to compensate for the wear.[4]
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 orcone in the form of a
helix, with the former being called a straight thread and the latter called atapered thread. A screw thread
is the essential feature of the screw as a simple machine and also as a fastener. More screw threads are
produced each year than any other machine element.[1]

The mechanical advantage of a screw thread depends on its lead, which is the linear distance the screw
travels in one revolution.[2] In most applications, the lead of a screw thread is chosen so that friction is
sufficient to prevent linear motion being converted to rotary, that is so the screw does not slip even when
linear force is applied so long as no external rotational force is present. This characteristic is essential to
the vast majority of its uses. The tightening of a fastener's screw thread is comparable to driving a wedge
into a gap until it sticks fast through friction and slight plastic deformation.

Applications
Screw threads have several applications:

 Fastening
 Fasteners such as wood screws, machine screws, nuts and bolts.
 Connecting threaded pipes and hoses to each other and to caps and fixtures.
 Gear reduction via worm drives
 Moving objects linearly by converting rotary motion to linear motion, as in the leadscrew of a jack.
 Measuring by correlating linear motion to rotary motion (and simultaneously amplifying it), as in
a micrometer.
 Both moving objects linearly and simultaneously measuring the movement, combining the two
aforementioned functions, as in a leadscrew of a lathe.
In all of these applications, the screw thread has two main functions:

 It converts rotary motion into linear motion.

 It prevents linear motion without the corresponding rotation.
Design
Gender
Every matched pair of threads, external and internal, can be described as male and female. For example,
a screw has male threads, while its matching hole (whether in nut or substrate) has female threads. This
property is called gender.

Handedness
 Right- and left-handed screw threads

The right-hand rule of screw threads.

The helix of a thread can twist in two possible directions, which is known as handedness. Most threads
are oriented so that the threaded item, when seen from a point of view on the axis through the center of
the helix, moves away from the viewer when it is turned in aclockwise direction, and moves towards the
viewer when it is turned counterclockwise. This is known as a right-handed (RH) thread, because it
follows the right hand grip rule. Threads oriented in the opposite direction are known as left-handed (LH).

By common convention, right-handedness is the default handedness for screw threads. Therefore, most
threaded parts and fasteners have right-handed threads. Left-handed thread applications include:

 Where the rotation of a shaft would cause a conventional right-handed nut to loosen rather than to
tighten due to fretting induced precession. Examples include:
 The left hand pedal on a bicycle.[3]
 The left-hand grinding wheel on a bench grinder.
  The lug nuts on the left side of some automobiles.
 The securing nut on some circular saw blades - the large torque at startup should tend to tighten
the nut.
 In combination with right-handed threads in turnbuckles and clamping studs.[4]
 In some gas supply connections to prevent dangerous misconnections, for example in gas welding
the flammable gas supply uses left-handed threads.
 In a situation where neither threaded pipe end can be rotated to tighten/loosen the joint, e.g. in
traditional heating pipes running through multiple rooms in a building. In such a case, the coupling will
have one right-handed and one left-handed thread
 In some instances, for example early ballpoint pens, to provide a "secret" method of disassembly.
 In mechanisms to give a more intuitive action as:
 The leadscrew of the cross slide of a lathe to cause the cross slide to move away from the
operator when the leadscrew is turned clockwise.
 The depth of cut screw of a “Stanley” type metal plane (tool) for the blade to move in the direction
of a regulating right hand finger.
 Some Edison base lamps and fittings (such as formerly on the New York City Subway) have a left-
hand thread to deter theft, since they cannot be used in other light fixtures.
The term chirality comes from the Greek word for "hand" and concerns handedness in many other
contexts.

Form
The cross-sectional shape of a thread is often called its form or threadform (also spelled thread form). It
may be square, triangular,trapezoidal, or other shapes. The terms form and threadform sometimes refer
to all design aspects taken together (cross-sectional shape, pitch, and diameters).

Most triangular threadforms are based on an isosceles triangle. These are usually called V-
threads or vee-threads because of the shape of the letter V. For 60° V-threads, the isosceles triangle is,
more specifically, equilateral. For buttress threads, the triangle is scalene.

The theoretical triangle is usually truncated to varying degrees (that is, the tip of the triangle is cut short).
A V-thread in which there is no truncation (or a minuscule amount considered negligible) is called a sharp
V-thread. Truncation occurs (and is codified in standards) for practical reasons:

 The thread-cutting or thread-forming tool cannot practically have a perfectly sharp point; at some
level of magnification, the point is truncated, even if the truncation is very small.
 Too-small truncation is undesirable anyway, because:
 The cutting or forming tool's edge will break too easily;
 The part or fastener's thread crests will have burrs upon cutting, and will be too susceptible to
additional future burring resulting from dents (nicks);
  The roots and crests of mating male and female threads need clearance to ensure that the
sloped sides of the V meet properly despite (a) error in pitch diameter and (b) dirt and nick-
induced burrs.
 The point of the threadform adds little strength to the thread.
Ball screws, whose male-female pairs involve bearing balls in between, show that other variations of form
are possible. Roller screwsuse conventional thread forms but introduce an interesting twist on the theme.

Angle
Main article: Thread angle

The angle characteristic of the cross-sectional shape is often called the thread angle. For most V-threads,
this is standardized as 60degrees, but any angle can be used.

Lead, pitch, and starts

Lead and pitch for two screw threads; one with one start and one with two starts

Lead /ˈliːd/ and pitch are closely related concepts.They can be confused because they are the same for
most screws. Lead is the distance along the screw's axis that is covered by one complete rotation of the
screw (360°). Pitch is the distance from the crest of one thread to the next. Because the vast majority of
screw threadforms are single-startthreadforms, their lead and pitch are the same. Single-start means that
there is only one "ridge" wrapped around the cylinder of the screw's body. Each time that the screw's
body rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of one ridge. "Double-start" means that
there are two "ridges" wrapped around the cylinder of the screw's body. [5] Each time that the screw's body
rotates one turn (360°), it has advanced axially by the width of two ridges. Another way to express this is
that lead and pitch are parametrically related, and the parameter that relates them, the number of starts,
very often has a value of 1, in which case their relationship becomes equality. In general, lead is equal
to S times pitch, in which S is the number of starts.

Whereas metric threads are usually defined by their pitch, that is, how much distance per thread, inch-
based standards usually use the reverse logic, that is, how many threads occur per a given distance.
Thus inch-based threads are defined in terms of threads per inch(TPI). Pitch and TPI describe the same
underlying physical property—merely in different terms. When the inch is used as the unit of
measurement for pitch, TPI is the reciprocal of pitch and vice versa. For example, a 1⁄4-20 thread has 20
TPI, which means that its pitch is 1⁄20 inch (0.050 in or 1.27 mm).
As the distance from the crest of one thread to the next, pitch can be compared to the wavelength of
a wave. Another wave analogy is that pitch and TPI are inverses of each other in a similar way that period
and frequency are inverses of each other.

Coarse threads are those with larger pitch (fewer threads per axial distance), and fine threads are those
with smaller pitch (more threads per axial distance). Coarse threads have a larger threadform relative to
screw diameter, whereas fine threads have a smaller threadform relative to screw diameter. This
distinction is analogous to that between coarse teeth and fine teeth on a saw or file, or between coarse
grit and fine grit on sandpaper.

The common V-thread standards (ISO 261 and Unified Thread Standard) include a coarse pitch and a
fine pitch for each major diameter. For example, 1⁄2-13 belongs to the UNC series (Unified National
Coarse) and 1⁄2-20 belongs to the UNF series (Unified National Fine).

A common misconception among people not familiar with engineering or machining is that the
term coarse implies here lower quality and the term fine implies higher quality. The terms when used in
reference to screw thread pitch have nothing to do with the tolerances used (degree of precision) or the
amount of craftsmanship, quality, or cost. They simply refer to the size of the threads relative to the screw
diameter. Coarse threads can be made accurately, or fine threads inaccurately.

Diameters

The three diameters that characterize bolt/nut threads

There are three characteristic diameters of threads: major diameter, minor diameter, andpitch diameter:
industry standards specify minimum (min) and maximum (max) limits for each of these, for all recognized
thread sizes. The min limits for external (or bolt, in ISO terminology), and the max limits for internal (nut),
thread sizes are there to ensure that threads do not strip at the tensile strength limits for the parent
material. The min limits for internal, and max limits for external, threads are there to ensure that the
threads fit together.

Major diameter
The major diameter of threads is the larger of two extreme diameters delimiting the height of the thread
profile, as a cross-sectional view is taken in a plane containing the axis of the threads. For a screw, this is
its outside diameter. The major diameter of a nut may not be directly measured, but it may be tested with
go/no-go gauges.
The major diameter of external threads is normally smaller than the major diameter of the internal
threads, if the threads are designed to fit together. But this requirement alone does not guarantee that a
bolt and a nut of the same pitch would fit together: the same requirement must separately be made for the
minor and pitch diameters of the threads. Besides providing for a clearance between thecrest of the bolt
threads and the root of the nut threads, we must also ensure that the clearances are not so excessive as
to cause the fasteners to fail.

Minor diameter
The minor diameter is the lower extreme diameter of the thread. Major diameter minus minor diameter,
divided by two, equals the height of the thread. The minor diameter of a nut is its inside diameter. The
minor diameter of a bolt can be measured with go/no-go gauges or, directly, with an optical comparator.

As shown in the figure at right, threads of equal pitch and angle that have matching minor diameters, with
differing major and pitch diameters, may appear to fit snugly, but only do so radially; threads that have
only major diameters matching (not shown) could also be visualized as not allowing radial movement. The
reduced material condition, due to the unused spaces between the threads, must be minimized so as not
to overly weaken the fasteners.

Pitch diameter

Variants of snug fit. Only threads with matched PDs are truly snug, axially as well as radially

The pitch diameter (PD, or D2) of a particular thread, internal or external, is the diameter of a cylindrical
surface, axially concentric to the thread, which intersects the thread flanks at equidistant points, when
viewed in a cross-sectional plane containing the axis of the thread, the distance between these points
being exactly one half the pitch distance. Equivalently, a line running parallel to the axis and a
distance D2 away from it, the "PD line," slices thesharp-V form of the thread, having flanks coincident with
the flanks of the thread under test, at exactly 50% of its height. We have assumed that the flanks have the
proper shape, angle, and pitch for the specified thread standard. It is generally unrelated to the major (D)
and minor (D1) diameters, especially if the crest and root truncations of the sharp-V form at these
diameters are unknown. Everything else being ideal, D2, D, & D1, together, would fully describe the thread
form. Knowledge of PD determines the position of the sharp-V thread form, the sides of which coincide
with the straight sides of the thread flanks: e.g., the crest of the external thread would truncate these
sides a radial displacement D - D2 away from the position of the PD line.

Provided that there are moderate non-negative clearances between the root and crest of the opposing
threads, and everything else is ideal, if the pitch diameters of a screw and nut are exactly matched, there
should be no play at all between the two as assembled, even in the presence of positive root-crest
clearances. This is the case when the flanks of the threads come into intimate contact with one another,
before the roots and crests do, if at all.

However, this ideal condition would in practice only be approximated and would generally require wrench-
assisted assembly, possibly causing the galling of the threads. For this reason, some allowance, or
minimum difference, between the PDs of the internal and external threads has to generally be provided
for, to eliminate the possibility of deviations from the ideal thread form causing interferenceand to
expedite hand assembly up to the length of engagement. Such allowances, or fundamental deviations, as
ISO standards call them, are provided for in various degrees in corresponding classes of fit for ranges of
thread sizes. At one extreme, no allowance is provided by a class, but the maximum PD of the external
thread is specified to be the same as the minimum PD of the internal thread, within specified tolerances,
ensuring that the two can be assembled, with some looseness of fit still possible due to the margin of
tolerance. A class called interference fit may even provide for negative allowances, where the PD of the
screw is greater than the PD of the nut by at least the amount of the allowance.

The pitch diameter of external threads is measured by various methods:

 A dedicated type of micrometer, called a thread mic or pitch mic, which has a V-anvil and a conical
spindle tip, contacts the thread flanks for a direct reading.
 A general-purpose micrometer (flat anvil and spindle) is used over a set of three wires that rest on the
thread flanks, and a known constant is subtracted from the reading. (The wires are truly gauge pins,
being ground to precise size, although "wires" is their common name.) This method is called the 3-
wire method. Sometimes grease is used to hold the wires in place, helping the user to juggle the part,
mic, and wires into position.
 An optical comparator may also be used to determine PD graphically.
Classes of fit
The way in which male and female fit together, including play and friction, is classified (categorized) in
thread standards. Achieving a certain class of fit requires the ability to work within tolerance ranges for
dimension (size) and surface finish. Defining and achieving classes of fit are important
for interchangeability. Classes include 1, 2, 3 (loose to tight); A (external) and B (internal); and various
systems such as H and D limits.

Standardization and interchangeability

To achieve a predictably successful mating of male and female threads and assured interchangeability
between males and between females, standards for form, size, and finish must exist and be
followed. Standardization of threads is discussed below.

Thread depth
Screw threads are almost never made perfectly sharp (no truncation at the crest or root), but instead are
truncated, yielding a finalthread depth that can be expressed as a fraction of the pitch value. The UTS
and ISO standards codify the amount of truncation, including tolerance ranges.

A perfectly sharp 60° V-thread will have a depth of thread ("height" from root to crest) equal to .866 of the
pitch. This fact is intrinsic to the geometry of an equilateral triangle—a direct result of the
basic trigonometric functions. It is independent of measurement units (inch vs mm). However, UTS and
ISO threads are not sharp threads. The major and minor diameters delimit truncations on either side of
the sharp V, typically about one eighth of the pitch (expressed with the notation 1/8p or .125p), although
the actual geometry definition has more variables than that. This means that a full (100%) UTS or ISO
thread has a height of around .65p.

Threads can be (and often are) truncated a bit more, yielding thread depths of 60 percent to 75 percent of
the .65p value. For example, a 75 percent thread sacrifices only a small amount of strength in exchange
for a significant reduction in the force required to cut the thread. The result is that tap and die wear is
reduced, the likelihood of breakage is lessened and higher cutting speeds can often be employed.

Truncation is achieved by using a slightly larger tap drill in the case of female threads, or by slightly
reducing the diameter of the threaded area of workpiece in the case of male threads, the latter effectively
reducing the thread's major diameter. In the case of female threads, tap drill charts typically specify sizes
that will produce an approximate 75 percent thread. A 60 percent thread may be appropriate in cases
where high tensile loading will not be expected. In both cases, the pitch diameter is not affected. The
balancing of truncation versus thread strength is similar to many engineering decisions involving the
strength, weight and cost of material, as well as the cost to machine it.

Taper
Tapered threads are used on fasteners and pipe. A common example of a fastener with a tapered thread
is a wood screw.

The threaded pipes used in some plumbing installations for the delivery of fluids under pressure have a
threaded section that is slightly conical. Examples are the NPT and BSP series. The seal provided by a
threaded pipe joint is created when a tapered externally threaded end is tightened into an end with
internal threads. Normally a good seal requires the application of a separate sealant in the joint, such
as thread seal tape, or a liquid or paste pipe sealant such as pipe dope, however some threaded pipe
joints do not require a separate sealant.