This is something new for me so I thought I might post a few questions.ġ.) Calculated the wind loads using ASCE 7-10 eqn. You wouldn't have wanted to source a replacement for any of our parts, but if you're to the point of taking out one our screws you're going to be replacing the entire unit anyways.I have a small job to design a steel mount for a hanging sign (approx. The cost of tooling fell away in the noise, and the price would typically adjust by the same % as the weight change, assuming there was sufficient notice to use up old stock, tooling, etc. We would do things like change a screw length 500 µm to solve a space issue. Even at 1/10th that quantity the cost is highly corelated to the weight and if you need any coatings or other process steps. I used to work at a place that went through somewhere around 30 to 35 million screws/year, 25M of which were one part number. I'm actually surprised they didn't pick some odd custom length as well. In the event that they do a field repair I wouldn't be surprised if they just put it together short a screw if one is lost during the process. It wouldn't surprise me if they plan to throw away any malfunctioning units (or charge them back to the supplier who will then throw them away). This is what happens when either the people in charge of initial cost are not coupled to the people in charge of maintenance, or they don't plan to do maintenance (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they know what they're doing to begin with). Who would have thought an electronics engineer would think to price screws by thread pitch. At first I just thought cheap bean counters then realized theres over 11,000 Walmarts world wide and each store gets around 100 cameras so thats 4.4+ million screws. Talk about a head scratcher! I finally asked one of the engineers why and they said per thousand the 10-24 were about $.20 cents cheaper verses the 10-32. Millions of fasteners and not a single 10-24 stocked, SHCS, FHCS, SSS, RHMS, etc and notta single 24TPI in anything unless special ordered and then it had to be case quantity.įast forward to now and we've been doing the finishing machine work on the facial recognition camera housings for Walmart and some genius decided the 4 holes that close the camera housings are 10-24 x 3/4 SHCS yet the mounting pads for the electronic boards are 4mm.

My industrial supply in Tennessee had around 10,000 SF dedicated to fastener warehousing for Rockford®, Unbrako®, Allen® and a hand full of the cheaper brands. I never really could figure out why 10-24 just wasn't that popular. Even those mounting rails that I mentioned above are normally made from sheet metal, rolled to shape. Thicker castings are quite rare in this type of equipment. It is desirable to have more than one full thread in a hole and many of the professional style, electronic devices were constructed with sheet metal.

One possible reason for the use of fine threads is the predominance of sheet metal over thicker castings. I do not think this was the original reason for 10-32s, but it is interesting. However, they would not fit through a 10-24 hole if the standard #25 (0.1495') tap drill was used. The M4s had a nominal OD of 0.1575' and would fit through a 10-32 hole if a #21 (0.159') tap drill was used. One curious thing that I have seen is some equipment from other countries (metric countries) came with M4 screws and nut plates that fit behind a set of three 10-32 holes in the rails. And you could order non-standard mounting rails with the 10-24 threads, but almost no one ever did. I am not aware of how this usage started in professional electronics. There are many other examples of fine threads being used in professional, electronic equipment. Those mounting screws are usually a combination of an oval head with an integral imitation of a countersunk washer to provide a wider head to better grip the usually slotted holes in the equipment being mounted. We would buy the mounting screws by boxes of 1000. Only one example is the mounting rails in standard electronic racks almost always have 10-32 holes. But 10-32s are used all over in electronics. I come from a professional electronics/radio/TV background and I almost never saw a 10-24 in use there.

Stainless steel eye bolts home depot