Bolts and screws are so commonly used items in our lives that we hardly pay any attention to them while benefitting a lot from these seemingly innocuous looking devices. All our furniture, our bikes (including our motor cycles), cars, air conditioners, computers, remote controls, and even the bathroom cabinet that has a mirror attached to it make heavy use of these bolts and screws. This article attempts to explain the differences between bolts and screws for the benefit of the readers.

When you need to secure two metallic or wooden parts, what do you do? You can make use of bolts or screws, depending upon the requirements or the holes made in the two parts for this purpose. Thus, it becomes clear that both bolts and screws are threaded fasteners that are helpful in securing two parts together without the use of any glue like material. How do you think your car wheels are attached with the body of your car? You can see it clearly when you need to take a punctured tire out of its place to get repaired. You use a wrench to open the bolts on the tire that are secured in their place with the help of nuts. But what about the remote control of your TV or kid’s remotely controlled car? You see the use of screws rather than bolts as these screws insert into the hole already created in the body of the remote, whether it is metallic or plastic body of the remote.

Thus we see that both bolts and screws perform the same basic function of securing two parts in an assembly though using different ways. Bolts need holes created in two parts .with head of the bolt on one side and its other end getting tightened with the use of a nut that secures both parts together. Torquing of nut is required to tightly secure the two parts by inserting the bolt in the holes. On the other hand, a screw gets tightened when its head is inserted in an opening with matching thread using a screwdriver.


What is the difference between Bolt and Screw?

• Bolts hold the material, while screws are held by the material

• Bolts compress the material, whereas screws are generally compressed by the material

• Bolts need a threaded interface like nut to secure two parts

• Screws are held tightly in the material that has threads that are matching with the thread on the screw.