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Acme thread on Shafting.Info

Acme thread, also known as leadscrew is a type of square threaded shafting. The shaft has a high strength square thread which can be used with a variety of nuts to provide linear movement of large loads. Common uses are in vices, lathes and adjusting mechanisms on machinery.

Leadscrew or acme thread is most common in right hand single lead type. Single lead means that if you follow a thread for a complete 360 degree rotation, you will end up on the adjacent thread. Right hand turn is the common type thread type found on most screws, tap handles etc. If turn a right hand screw clockwise (to the right) the screw will wind itself into the nut.

Leadscrews can also be found in multiple start configuration. A double lead screw has two threads running around the shaft beside each other. To test this, you could follow a thread around a full 360 degree rotation and you would end up two threads away from the starting thread. Similarly a quadruple lead screw has four threads running adjacent to each other.

Left hand threaded acme thread or leadscrews turn the opposite way to right hand threads. So to turn a left hand thread into a nut you would wind it to the left or counter-clockwise.

More information on Acme Thread can be found in Wikipedia.

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