I always figured it was intentional but for the other reason: screws soft enough that overtightening can't damage/crack the multi-thousand dollar components, the screw head cores out first.
Comment on acceptable screws
weeeeum@lemmy.world 2 months agoI use the correct driver, I’ll go through my kit to find the best fitting bit. It simply comes down to the fact they are designed to strip to avoid “catastrophic failure”. Plus the fact that companies use intentionally cheap, soft screws, to make repair and service harder. Cough cough zinc screws on a $10,000 iMac (steel screws would have cost 25 cents for 10, zinc like 5 cents for 10, fucking ridiculous).
OsaErisXero@kbin.run 2 months ago
grue@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s great, but then you can’t get your multi-thousand dollar component unscrewed anyway so what was the point?
evergreen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I read that the thing about them being designed to strip to prevent worse failure is just a myth. Or at least they weren’t originally designed to. It said that the original patent never contained any feature for that. Wouldn’t surprise me though if modern companies do use screws designed to strip to prevent disassembly/repair.
HocEnimVeni@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I think originally the screws would cause the driver to cam out and stop driving if a certain amount of force is applied but the screws are so soft and cheap that the harder driver damages the screw head when it cams out.
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
This and the centered shape that Philips and Robertson have were key. The lack of a sharp driver bit being able to slip out of the fastener prevented a lot of injuries.
However, Philips, at least, needs to go away.