Chip-Clearing Screw Structure for Faster Driving and Tight Grip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional screws lack sufficient space for accommodating and removing chips during screwing operations, leading to increased screwing resistance, potential workpiece cracking, and poor engagement due to chip accumulation.
Innovation Solution
The screw design incorporates a groove and slot region on its surface, allowing for enlarged spaces to discharge and hold chips, reducing resistance and ensuring quick screwing and tight engagement by facilitating chip removal through the groove and slots.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If chips are discharged only through spaces between thread convolutions and shank, then the screw structure remains simple, but chip discharge is slow and screwing resistance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the chip discharge path into multiple segments: the groove provides a primary discharge channel along the thread convolutions, while the slot region with multiple slots provides additional discharge pathways. This segmentation allows chips to be efficiently removed through multiple routes simultaneously, significantly improving chip discharge speed and reducing screwing resistance without requiring a complete redesign of the screw structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove acts as an intermediary structure that collects chips from the cutting zone and directs them toward the slot region. The groove mediates between the thread convolutions where chips are generated and the slots where chips are ultimately discharged, creating an efficient chip transport pathway that reduces screwing resistance and improves productivity.
2Duration of action of moving object
If screwing operation continues with accumulated chips, then the screwing process continues, but workpiece may crack and engagement becomes poor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts chips from the screwing zone in real-time through the groove and slot region, removing them before they can accumulate and cause harm. This continuous extraction process prevents chip accumulation that would otherwise lead to workpiece cracking and poor engagement, ensuring both operational continuity and high reliability throughout the screwing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potentially harmful presence of chips into a beneficial process by designing the groove and slot region to actively manage chip flow. Instead of allowing chips to accumulate and cause damage, the structure guides chips through a controlled discharge path, transforming the chip management challenge into an opportunity to improve screwing efficiency and workpiece quality.
3Productivity
If groove and slot region are added to enlarge chip spaces, then chip discharge efficiency improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention adds a new dimension to chip management by introducing the groove (extending in the spiral direction) and the slot region (with slots extending axially) as additional spatial features. This dimensional expansion creates volumetric chip storage and discharge pathways without significantly increasing the overall screw dimensions, thereby improving chip discharge efficiency while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The groove and slot region are localized features positioned specifically between certain thread convolutions where chip accumulation is most problematic. By concentrating chip management features only where needed rather than throughout the entire screw, the invention improves chip discharge efficiency locally without requiring complex manufacturing across the entire component.
Data Source
AI summary
A screw includes a shank defining an exposed surface portion, a head and a drill section disposed at two opposite ends of the shank, and thread convolutions spirally disposed in a spiral direction and axially spaced apart. Each thread convolution has an upper thread flank and a lower thread flank. A groove is recessedly formed in the surface portion and extends annularly in the spiral direction, and a plurality of slots are recessedly formed in the surface portion and extends axially from at least one lower thread flank to meet the groove. Accordingly, the groove and the slots are adapted to enlarge spaces for moving and accommodating chips, thereby attaining a quick removal of chips, reducing screwing resistance, and accelerating a screwing operation. The accumulation of remaining chips within the groove and the slots facilitates a tight engagement between the screw and a workpiece and attains an anti-loosening effect.