Pozi or Phillips?

“Pass the Pozi screwdriver.” Hubby waved his hand behind his back, vaguely in my direction.

“That’s the wrong one.”

“They’re both the same.” I replied as he handed back the screwdriver I had passed to him.

“No, they’re not.” His tone implies the unsaid “Everyone knows that!”

“Well what’s the difference, then?” Too late. He’d picked up a different one, which looked exactly the same to me.

No reply.

So, people, I ask you…..Pozi or Phillips? Is there a difference?

Phillips Head

The Phillips head was invented by John P. Thompson in early 1930s. It has a cross shaped recess in the head of the screw, with rounded corners to the cross points. It was named after Henry F. Phillips because he succeeded where Thompson hadn’t in persuading businesses to use it. He then went on to create the Phillips Screw company after buying the design from Thompson.

This new design helped the screwdriver stay in place while the screw was being tightened and not wreck the head of the screw.

Fast forward to today….

Pozi drive

POZI is short for POZI DRIVE. This is a trade name that belongs to Phillips Screw Company. It is the name of another type of screw head that was designed in 1963. Again they needed something to stop the screwdriver slipping out of the head of the screw when tightening it.

At a first quick glance, the POZI head in the POZI screws does look very similar so for all of us who didn’t know there was difference before now, so we have a very good reason for our misunderstanding.

It still has the cross-shaped recess but the corners are not rounded off and there is another set of lines in-between the main cross. If you look closely you can also see that each inwards corner of the cross has an extra little bit taken out. It kind of resembles a square recess with a cross recess added to it.

Phillips screwdrivers will fit in the POZI screws but will probably not tighten it completely before camming-out. POZI screwdrivers will not fit into a Phillips screw as the recess shape is totally different.

Camming-out is a technical term for when the screwdriver slips out of the screw head. If this is happening repeatedly, then you will damage the screw head.

I am very excited to discover that there are LOADS of different types of screw heads and they are all for different jobs. At the moment we only sell two types… general and POZI compatible.