Why investing in quality screwdriver bits could prevent production falling to pieces

Ensuring you invest in good quality drive bits has surprising ramifications. Not just having negative consequences on your finished product quality, investing in good quality drive bits could ensure your production doesn’t fall to pieces.

Whether your organisation utilises specialty drive bits such as hex inserts or square drive, Torx or Tri wing, or whether the bits you work with are designed with ball or power grooves, Phillips or pozidrive, it is essential that quality is considered over quantity.

There are no surprises that in today’s competitive manufacturing environment, the bottom line is considered on all aspects of purchasing, especially with consumables such as drive bits. Usually purchased by procurement, it is often difficult to persuade those tasked with the purchase why investing in quality will pay dividends in the long term.

Ergonomics

With health and safety becoming increasingly important in the workplace, with assemblers benefitting from ergonomically designed work stations, of which some are designed with held in torque reaction arms, minimising the effects of the torque by counteracting it. However, that is where it usually stops. This seems counter-intuitive, especially when cutting corners on screwdriver bits can result in assemblers suffering from repetitive strain jury.

According to Safe Work Australia, Manufacturing (only second to Agriculture) saw 12,925 serious claims during 2017-2018, with 8.1 claims per million hours worked, and 15.2 claims per 1,000 employees. The median time lost was 5.8 weeks. So, if you had to lose nearly six weeks, with the cost of taking on temporary staff and training them, the cost would be multiplied.

Re-engaging the bit

As the bits wear, the drive edges become rounded and the bits tend to “cam-out” of the fasteners’ drive recess. This causes the bit to spin on the stationary screw head. In an attempt to overcome this, the operator will push down harder to re-engage the bit, eventually leading to a repetitive strain injury if left unchecked.

Investing in screwdriver bits cast from premium alloys and heat treated such as the comprehensive range of bits from Apex. Most Apex bits are available in three different heat treat hardnesses, helping to avoid premature wear, ensuring the bits don’t cam-out.

Taking the design of bits one step further, Apex have developed a special wing-face for their range of insert bits, helping to grip the recess. This special feature ensures the bits minimise their tendency to cam-out, as well as reducing the occurrence of stripping.

All of these solutions negate the requirement for assemblers to push harder to re-engage the bit, helping to prevent any repetitive strain injuries.

Quality Control

Poor quality bits don’t just make things unnecessarily difficult, they can also effect quality control to the extent that rework is required. Not only can poor quality bits wear prematurely, but they can also shatter! Shattering is likely to happen if additional pressure is applied to re-engage the screw. This can cause damage to the surrounding assembly, causing surface damage such as chips and scratches.

Worn screwdriver bits can also lead to screws not being fastened correctly and parts arriving to the customer with loose and/or damaged screws.

One solution to consider is the 27 series bits range, also from Apex. These innovative bits are designed to fill-out inexact recesses with their wider tips, making them ideal for poorly recessed screws.

Persuading procurement

If you are one of the frustrated assemblers utilising this process and you’re fed up with applying additional pressure to stop the cam-out, you need to consider presenting the math to senior management.

According to Indeed AU, the average assembler in Sydney takes home $49,000 (AUD), which works out at 27 dollars per hour. If you have a team of assemblers and the estimate is one in every 100 is off for 5.8 weeks, that equates to $5,497.24 (AUD).

Those figures do not include the cost of rework of damaged assemblies or the cost of your brand’s reputation – which is priceless.

On average, the cost of quality Phillips screwdriver bits are more of an investment compared with ‘common’ Phillips bits, but they last a lot longer too. So, if an average of ten bits are ordered at a time costing $5 (AUD) and Apex bits for the same quantity cost $20 (AUD), it’s still incomparable to 5,497.24 (AUD), let alone lost reputation, if you can’t meet your targets and quality is compromised.