Recent trends in the miniaturization and weight reduction of portable electronic parts have driven the use of subminiature screws with a micrometer-scale pitch. As both screw length and pitch decrease in subminiature screws, the resulting clamping force becomes diminishes. In this work, Finite element (FE) analysis is performed to evaluate clamping force of a screw assembly, with a comparison with experimental result. To improve clamping force of subminiature screws, a new screw design is considered by modifying screw thread angle: the thread angle is varied as an asymmetric way unlike the conventional symmetric thread angle. FE analyses are then performed to compare the clamping characteristics of each subminiature screw with different thread angle. The effect of thread angles on the clamping force is then discussed in terms of structural safety for both positive and negative screws.
