Is it driving you? I guess not. Screws are somewhat like the air we breathe, they are tiny things that we take for granted in our daily lives. Now if you haven't seen what a screw looks like, flip your keyboard or mouse upside down. Yes that's it! It's that shiny silver thing on the edges of the gadgets you commonly use.



Screws usually function as fasteners for mounting and for locking two adjacent cases to protect the inner core of the gadget. Recently screws have evolved and are made of plastic material which is generally used for mounting electronic circuit boards to take advantage of its insulation property.

Screws for that matter don't come as metal or plastic in its classification. They are classified depending on the shape of the slot it has on its head and the thread that it has.

Commonly there are two classifications of screws. We have the wood screw and the metal screw. How do we tell the difference? Metal screws have a pitch with much farther spaces in between them compared to that of the wood screw. Metal screws are used when a hole has been drilled unto the metal surface prior to the installation of the screw. A wood screw is not a screw made out of wood but a screw designed to be attached to a wood. This type of screw has a pitch interval closer than that of a metal screw. It also has a sharp pointed bottom. The installation of wood screws requires the screw to be used as a bit to drill into the wooden surface.

Another classification of screws is the type of head slot it has. The most common type of screws you could find in your neighborhood tool shop is the Phillips screws, Standard Slotted screws, Hex key screws, and the Pozidriv. Other types of heads are the Torx, Robertson, Tri-wing, Torque-set and the Spanner. These screws are commonly used in consumer electronics like televisions, DVD players, digital media players, cellular phones and etc. The reason why companies use these kinds of screw is for security purposes. This is to discourage unauthorized tampering of the gadget because finding the screwdrivers to fit these types of screws are pretty hard and expensive. Having the right tools to open these equipment means that the individual is qualified and experience enough to open such items.

So this is to give you a basic idea of the screw. I suggest that if you might need one, you better bring a sample to the hardware store to have a perfect fit for your need because if screws are installed with the wrong size and type, this could break and crack open your encasement which could mean trouble.