For centuries, metal in the form of nails, and then screws have held assemblies together. It’s a simple form of technology that developed from needing something better than simple nails that eventually pulled or were pushed out of place by age, corrosion and changing temperature.
The screw now comes in different forms, with either a penetrating point or as a bolt that can be secured on the other side with a matching thread nut. However, in all these cases, one thing continues to make the screw vulnerable, and that is the exact thing that allows it to be installed in the first place – the shape of the head for driving it in.
The Achilles Heel of a Hardware Screw
Commonly referred to as a flathead or a Phillips design, the head shape allows the screw to be twisted into place. Other designs exist as well, such as star form and torque, but the method is the same. However, this same driving shape also makes it easy to untwist a screw from its placement, allowing disassembly of whatever it was installed into.
That has become a big problem because of vandalism, damage, theft and more. To respond to this issue, modern screw manufacturers started providing screw heads with different shapes that required special tools to install or remove. In other cases, the screws were designed as one-use, one-direction: they could only be installed and not twisted back out.
Both became impractical, however. Thieves could get specialty tools at hardware stores, and the one-use form caused a lot of damage when it had to be removed in a disassembly. Another alternative was needed.
Security screws became an option for builders, assemblers and manufacturers with the promise that they were tamper proof. Fundamentally, a tamper proof screw should be essentially resistant to any kind of uninstalling or removal that is not desired by the original user.
However, again, these “tamper proof” options were only as good as access to the tools themselves used to install them in the first place. If a vandal or thief had the tool, then protection was useless, and that became the case again and again. Smart thieves started making a collection of the right tools, available from specialty stores, and overcame specialized screws very quickly.
Again, the same problem was back in place. However, the marketing of “tamper proof” was still used regardless, practically lying to the market and consumers about what was actually resistant to unauthorized removal.
What is Tamper Proof?
The key difference in real tamper proof screws versus what was being offered erroneously boils down to the tool used for installation. It has to be controlled, as well as accessed to the rest of the market. In this regard, real tamper proof fasteners are only provided when both the hardware and the installation tool are restricted to authorized parties.
Standardization across an entire market doesn’t work. Instead, customization is what makes the security of tamper proof hardware viable. This is what is offered by screw manufacturers, like Bryce Fastener, offering a screw and matching tool that is unique, not available anywhere else, and not possible to replicate either.
How Hardware Tamper Proof Actually Happens
The “magic” of a real, tamper proof screw comes in the physical design. First, the head of the screw utilizes a driving shape that is both effective for installation and tightening as well as hard to force un-tightening without the requisite tool. That means it needs to make any other type of tool one can get from a hardware store or generic source obsolete and useless.
The design has to be such that one would literally have to grind a slot into the screw head to be able to turn it with leverage. And, of course, no thief is going to be using a noisy Dremel tool, grinder or similar, much less have one on their person for that sort of thing. It’s too much trouble; there are plenty of other targets with far less trouble and less noise involved.
Secondly, the tool and socket in the screw head has to be controlled, as mentioned earlier. This means only the buyer and maker have the given hardware installation tool. But how to solve the problem of copies getting out and being misused? Simple, make every purchase unique so no one else can use it.
For many years, a custom-shape option was deemed impractical from a manufacturing perspective, leaving assemblers with the problem of not being able to overcome thieves and vandals proactively. Only those willing to pay for specialized custom work had access to the benefits of a unique physical design to prevent tampering.
The cost was too prohibitive for mass usage, especially when producers and assembly manufacturers go the opposite direction, looking for ways to reduce production expense and maximize profit in resale.
Now, however, real tamper proof screw hardware is available with custom head designs that are only available to a given client and no one else. Literally, no other client has the same shape or tooling to drive the given screws involved. And that makes their security 100 times better right from the start than anything else on the market trying to call itself “tamper proof.”
Focus on What Works
Now, obviously, no smart manufacturer of a true tamper proof screw is going to say their product is perfect. That’s just an invitation for someone to come along and prove that it is not. And with today’s Internet capability, such a display would go everywhere quickly, damaging the market position and reputation of the company involved.
However, the type of custom tamper proof hardware offered by dedicated security producers are clearly game-changers for hardware assembly that needs to stay secure. Whether it’s something as mundane as keeping municipal bathroom stalls together or resisting damage or vandalism to sensitive panels exposed on the outside of buildings, a real tamper proof screw is a necessity today. And custom tamper proof hardware is the ideal product to solve this problem effectively.
