Prelude
Screws are an integral part of any project which contains manufacturing and building elements. They can be found in settings ranging from school workshops to industrial factories, and are essential towards fastening materials and providing a quick fix to a variety of problems. Nonetheless, those who have had the unenviable task of sorting screws of all shapes and sizes by hand would know how much of a hassle this could be, especially with no viable alternative methods. As such, we aim to design an effective screw-sorting machine that could bring about a great deal of convenience for anyone attempting to sort screws.
Our Inspiration
It is fitting that our idea of a screw sorter machine sprung up after we experienced for ourselves the sheer difficulty in distinguishing between screws. While exploring in the M and T lab, one of us unintentionally took out a screw without looking at the label on the box. When we wanted to return the screw to the original box, we realized we could not determine its head size and length, and we ended up having to compare with screws from multiple boxes. (Insert picture to show the minimal difference between 2 screws) This clearly highlighted the need for a screw sorting machine in order to reduce one’s workload and increase their efficiency if they were to sort a large number of screws. There was no doubt in our minds that this would be a daunting task. Even one of our mentors told us that he had tried building a screw sorting machine, but it didn’t work well due to different sizes of screws obstructing each others’ movement. Furthermore, we found that the functions of existing screw sorting machines on the market were severely limiting for the typical workshop user. DIY screw-sorting machines, such as the one explained on this website, are only able to sort screws by a single characteristics – the screw length. They are also unable to sort screw of short lengths under 10mm. On the other hand, “professional” screw sorting machines like these cost up to 10000USD and weight over 600kg, making them highly unsuitable and inconvenient in areas such as school workshops. The lack of existing screw-sorting machines that were both sufficiently practical and user-friendly made us even more determined to take on this task and come up with a unique design that could effectively address the aforementioned shortcomings.
Our Vision
We envisioned that our screw-sorting machine would be able to sort screws by both head size and length. For the purposes of this project, our scope would include M2-M6 screws ranging between 4 to 45mm, which is already a huge upgrade in capabilities from any existing DIY machine. Our machine would also have to be lightweight, portable and cost-effective, such that it can be conveniently utilized in almost any workshop setting.