** Reply to message from John Anderson <janderson@IOLINC.NET> on Tue, 3 Nov 1998 08:50:54 -0500 Just to be picky here, "Allen" is a trademark of the Allen company and refers to their brand of hex keys (I suspect they invented the inside-hex fastener). Torx is likewise a trademark for the internal 6-point fastener system with pointed corners instead of flats, which allows more torque without stripping out the fastener -- it's also better adapted for robotic assembly systems. I don't know of a trademarked version of the internal 12-point system, but all the mechanics I've met call it a triple-square. I also have a strange key with a six- or eight-point system which is -- can't think of a word -- take a square wave and bend it in a circle. It's very small, so it looks like a hex key unless you look close. I've never seen a fastener like it. I think the fastener would look like a regular hex with little splines coming in from the corners. If someone knows anything about that I'd be interested. david
> On nomenclature actually "allen" is often used to refer to a number of > generic socketed fasteners, not merely the 6 point. But I guess 12 pt or > "triple square" would be acceptable, I've seen "12 pt allen key" used in
David Beierl <dbeierl@ibm.net> 401 274-5827 voice, -6349 fax OS/2 V4, FP7, JVM 1.1.6, JSM 98.6.3 |
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