Handedness of threads
If you are working on a project, it is important to understand the handedness of components and their use cases. Learn more about handedness and ensure a compatible application.
There are two types of handedness: right-handed thread and left-handed thread. Almost all products are right-handed. This is not because most of the population is “right-handed” but because this is the industry standard. Components like nuts, bolts and screws are right-handed thread because of the direction of the movement when driving a screw into a bolt. Right-handed threaded components turn in a clockwise direction to tighten the part and then anti-clockwise to loosen the part. Hence the saying “righty-tighty, left-loosey”.
The threads have sloped helical grooves responsible for the direction. You can decide the thread type by seeing the grooves' direction. Left-handed thread grooves are angled to the left. Right-handed threads; grooves are turned to the right.
Left-handed components are often mistaken for accessible products for left-handed individuals. However, left-handed are made to secure a component without becoming loosened over time, which is why they are reverse threaded. This type of thread prevents the element from loosening, caused by the torque of turning parts.
WDS Components offer screws, threads, and bolts in assorted sizes for many uses. You can identify whether the component is left threaded if the part number has the letter “L”, for example; 552-206L. Another way to find out is by looking at the technical specification table where the column is labelled "Threads: Left”.
For April Fool’s Day, WDS decided to do something fun and create left-handed handles suitable for left-handed people. Please find out what we did for April Fool's Day in this article.
