Industry
Micro screws for devices that are thin, visible and assembled by machine
Consumer Electronics Why it matters
Consumer electronics is the hardest environment for a small fastener. The screw is small enough that a burr matters, visible enough that a colour difference is a defect, and produced in a volume where a single process drift becomes an entire lot of scrap. At the same time the assembly is automated, so the screw must be picked, oriented and driven without the operator touching it.
Our answer is to control the three characteristics that matter at this scale: the thread, the head and the drive. Machine screws cover every position that will be serviced; self-tapping screws cover single-use positions in moulded housings; PVD handles anything visible; and precoated locking removes the adhesive dispensing step from the line. All four families are produced in the same plant that finishes and sorts them, so the finish and the dimension are not the responsibility of two different suppliers.
M0.6
Smallest catalogue size
9
Drive styles available
10
Standard PVD colours
IP68
Sealing with pre-coated thread
Field problems
These are the failure modes we see most often, and the engineering response that addresses each one. Problems are stated as they appear on the line, not as they appear in a textbook.
| Problem observed | Engineering response |
|---|---|
| Cosmetic screws show colour variation between lots on a visible surface. | PVD is a vacuum deposition process, so the colour is stable and does not peel or fade the way a plated finish can. Ten standard tones cover silver, black, gold, rose gold, dark brown and blue. |
| The drive recess deforms after repeated automated engagement. | The PVD film is harder than the driver bit, so the recess keeps its geometry. On high-cycle lines a hard-coated recess is the difference between one tool change a week and one a shift. |
| Liquid threadlocker at the line is slow to dispense and contaminates nearby optics. | Precoated screws arrive with the locking element already applied at a controlled axial position, so the line drives a screw instead of dispensing adhesive. |
| A screw that is a few micrometres off-centre will not feed reliably in an automated driver. | Head concentricity and recess geometry are inspected by vision, and every lot passes an optical sorter before packing so that out-of-tolerance parts never reach a feeder. |
| A product that is opened for service strips the thread in its plastic housing. | Use a machine screw into a brass insert or heat-set nut at any position that will be serviced. The insert takes the wear and the thread survives repeated assembly. |
| The thread is closed up by the coating and the screw no longer fits the tapped hole. | A PVD film is measured in nanometres to micrometres, so it does not block the thread or change the assembly clearance — which is precisely why it is preferred over plating on micro threads. |
Specification basis
A starting specification, not a fixed menu. Most programmes adjust one or two of these after the first joint review.
Catalogue diameter range
M0.6 – M2.0
Head styles in production
Countersunk (F), small pan (P), pan / oval (C)
Drive styles
Phillips, TORX®, TORX PLUS®, hex socket, slotted, Tri-wing, Y-type, Pozidriv, double-cross
Materials
SWRCH carbon steel, SUS302HQ, SUS304, SUS316, SUS410, titanium TA2
Magnetic behaviour
Low magnetism on 302HQ / 304 / 316; non-magnetic on TA2
Finishes
Zinc, nickel, zinc-nickel, PVD, passivation, black zinc, colour zinc, nano coating, stoving paint
Locking
Nylon patch, micro-encapsulated adhesive, sealing compound, damping compound from M0.8
Sealing
Up to IP68 with pre-coated head or thread
Packing
Bulk, tray, or tape and reel for solderable hardware
Recommended products
Chosen for the tolerance, finish and locking requirements typical of the assemblies described above.
Micro Screws · M0.6 – M2
Micro machine screws that engage a pre-formed thread — a tapped hole, a brass insert or a heat-set nut — and hold their clamp load through repeated disassembly.
Micro Screws · M1.0 – M2.0
Self-tapping micro screws remove the tapping operation: the screw forms its own thread in a plain pilot hole in plastic or thin metal, so the housing needs no insert.
Micro Screws · M1.0 – M2.0
Physical vapour deposition puts a dense ceramic film on the screw in a vacuum chamber — hard enough to resist driver wear, thin enough that it does not close the thread or change the fit.
Micro Screws · From M0.8 × 1.0 mm
Screws supplied with a locking, sealing or vibration-damping element already applied — micro-encapsulated adhesive, nylon patch, sealant or damping coating, from M0.8 upward.
Thread & Panel · Light alloy & plastic
Thread inserts give a lightweight structure a thread that survives repeated assembly — wire thread inserts, self-tapping inserts and key-locking inserts for plastic, aluminium and magnesium.
Pins & Spacers · Board-level hardware
Threaded standoffs, solderable tin-plated copper nuts and high-current terminals — the hardware that sets board height and carries power and earth through a PCB stack.
Design notes
These decisions are cheap at concept stage and expensive after tooling is cut.
01
Any screw that will come out again during the product life should engage a metal thread — a tapped insert or a heat-set nut. A self-tapping screw degrades each time it is re-driven, and the failure appears as a stripped housing, not a stripped screw.
02
In a phone or a wearable the stack height is fixed long before the fastener is chosen. Countersunk and small pan heads recover the millimetres that a standard pan head consumes, and they are the reason the F and P head forms dominate this industry.
03
A visible screw is part of the industrial design. Choosing the PVD colour at the same time as the housing colour avoids the situation where a functionally correct screw is rejected for a half-tone difference against the bezel.
04
A drive that works on a torque driver in the lab can cam out on a pneumatic driver running at production rate. Validate the recess against the actual production tooling before the tool is cut.
Joint review
A drawing gives us geometry. The mating material, the service cycles and the cleaning chemistry decide whether the joint works. Send all three and we will review the whole stack.
Questions
Answers to the questions that come up most in this industry.
Related industries
The same fastener discipline applies across these industries, with different documentation and validation requirements.
Industry
Clinching, riveting and captive hardware for server chassis and liquid-cooling loops, plus solderable board hardware for PCB stacks inside the rack.
Industry
Riveting, clinching, threaded inserts and sealed screws for control cabinets, industrial enclosures and equipment that must survive a long service life in the field.
Industry
Shoulder screws, thread inserts, high-strength screws and rod end bearings for the joints, frames and transmission systems of humanoid robots and dexterous hands.
From a single prototype joint to a PPAP production launch, the same team reviews the drawing and the assembly context.
