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Henry F. Phillips

 
Henry F. Phillips

 
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Henry F. Phillips
 
 
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Henry F. Phillips (1890 – 1958), a U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 businessman from Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
, has the honor of having the Phillips-head screw
Screw

A screw is a shaft with a helix groove or screw thread formed on its surface and provision at one end to turn the screw. Its main uses are as a threaded fastener used to hold objects together, and as a simple machine used to translate torque into linear force....
 and screwdriver
Screwdriver

The screwdriver is a device specifically designed to insert and tighten, or to loosen and remove, screws. The screwdriver is made up of a head or tip, which engages with a screw, a mechanism to apply torque by rotating the tip, and some way to position and support the screwdriver....
 named after him.

The importance of the crosshead screw design lies in its self-centering property, useful on automated production lines that use powered screwdrivers.






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Phillips Screw Head
Henry F. Phillips (1890 – 1958), a U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 businessman from Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
, has the honor of having the Phillips-head screw
Screw

A screw is a shaft with a helix groove or screw thread formed on its surface and provision at one end to turn the screw. Its main uses are as a threaded fastener used to hold objects together, and as a simple machine used to translate torque into linear force....
 and screwdriver
Screwdriver

The screwdriver is a device specifically designed to insert and tighten, or to loosen and remove, screws. The screwdriver is made up of a head or tip, which engages with a screw, a mechanism to apply torque by rotating the tip, and some way to position and support the screwdriver....
 named after him.

The importance of the crosshead screw design lies in its self-centering property, useful on automated production lines that use powered screwdrivers. Phillips' major contribution was in driving the crosshead concept forward to the point where it was adopted by screwmakers and automobile companies.

The design was purpose made to cam out
Cam out

To cam out is a process by which a screwdriver slips out of the head of a screw being driven once the torque required to turn the screw exceeds a certain amount....
 when the screw stalled, to prevent the fastener damaging the work or the head, instead damaging the driver. This was due to the relative difficulty in building torque limiting into the early drivers. (Compare this with the anti-'cam out' designs that are now prevalent from the latter half of the 20th century.)

Although he received patent
Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a term of patent in exchange for a disclosure of an invention....
s for the design in 1936 (US
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 Patent #2,046,343, US Patents #2,046,837 to 2,046,840), it was so widely copied that by 1949 Phillips lost his patent.

The American Screw Company was responsible for devising a means of manufacturing the screw, and successfully patented and licensed their method; other screw makers of the 1930s dismissed the Phillips concept since it calls for a relatively complex recessed socket shape in the head of the screw — as distinct from the simple milled slot of a slotted type screw.

The Phillips Screw Company and the American Screw Company went on to devise the Pozidriv
Pozidriv

The Pozidriv is a type of screw head and screwdriver, jointly patented by the Phillips Screw Company and American Screw Company. The name is thought to be an abbreviation of positive drive....
 screw, which differs from the Phillips in that it is designed to accommodate greater torque
Torque

Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis . Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
 than the Phillips.