Seems to be down, mirror here: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220929080424/https://shoppress.dormanproducts.com/not-every-phillips-head/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20220929080424/https://shoppress...</a><p>In Europe (well worldwide) there is another "Philips" like screw head called Pozidriv [0], it has a small engraved cross 45deg to the main recess on the screw head. The drivers have flutes in the head identifying them. They are <i>much</i> better than Philips as they are designed to not ride out until under a high enough torque where the screw could be damaged.<p>In the UK they are the dominant product in hardware stores.<p>0: <a href="https://shop4fasteners.co.uk/blog/pozidriv-vs-phillips/" rel="nofollow">https://shop4fasteners.co.uk/blog/pozidriv-vs-phillips/</a>
And there is even a third!<p>The article talks about "normal" versus JIS Phillips drives. But "normal" actually comes in two different flavors: US (ANSI) and German (DIN/later ISO). ISO Phillips drivers work perfectly on ISO Phillips heads and quite well on JIS or ANSI Phillips heads. ANSI Phillips drivers work perfectly on ANSI Phillips heads and noticeably worse on JIS or ISO Phillips heads.<p>You probably have not experienced this if your Phillips screwdrivers were not made in USA, as virtually every manufacturer outside the US used or uses the JIS, DIN, or ISO profile for their tools, and those work tolerably on all Phillips type screws. (Of course JIS is palpably best on JIS, which is the subject of the article.) But if you have older or newer made in USA tools (especially Pratt-Read, who recently closed down) or fasteners (which probably had to come from some industrial type place), you may have noticed that Phillips is even more crap than expected. Or you might have noticed that the "foreigners" are better at tools if you compared against a good German or Japanese screwdriver.<p>Not really! It's just that there are <i>three kinds of Phillips profile</i>. It's <i>awful</i>. Death to Phillips, death to Pozidriv (too easy to confuse and damage here in the US), death to anything that looks like Phillips. Long live Robertson, Hex, Torx, and anything with ball end drivers available!
I never realized how bad Phillips was until I started renovating a home this year. They are truly the worst of all the options. They need to be phased out completely. Square is better in every way. A core problem with Phillips is not only that the cross is simply not the best shape to hold torque, which it's not, but that there is no consistency between the crosses themselves. With square, you only have to worry about size. With Phillips, you have to pay attention to the angles and character of the cross, in addition to size. One Phillips might be deeper or skinnier than another that looks the same. Matching the perfect driver to a screw is difficult in general, and near impossible by eye.
Interesting that the USA doesn't seem to use Pozi.<p>In Australia and NZ -<p>Pozi are by far the most common in building/construction (although everyone refers them as Phillips colloquially) with square drive there after. Cheap/poorly made hardware from China will at times ship with Phillips instead of Pozi (or JIS), you can always tell because Philip screwdrivers are easy to strip in comparison and require slightly more talk to tighten I think.<p>With machined screws such as those used on electronics the most common for commercial/industrial would probably be Torx, followed by Pozi. In cheap consumer gear it's probably a mix of Phillips and Pozi.<p>Really no one should be using Phillips in this day and age, it's horribly dated - easy to strip and low torque.
AFAIK JIS is now becoming obsolete, we have DIN 5260/ISO 8764-1 :<p><a href="https://rtstools.com/jis-vs-phillips-screwdrivers-and-where-to-buy-a-jis-screwdriver/" rel="nofollow">https://rtstools.com/jis-vs-phillips-screwdrivers-and-where-...</a>
There are many other Phillips-like but not Phillips head designs in common use, including:<p>Pozidriv, used on many devices manufactured in the EU.<p>Phillips ACR which is Phillips with extra ridges for more torque/less stripping<p>Frearson is used in fine woodworking screws<p>MorTorque is used in some aerospace applications. Rolls-Royce jet engines are covered with them.<p>Offset Cruiciform, AKA Torq-set, aka Nazi Screws, were previously common in aviation but are not typically used in new commercial design.<p>As usual wiki has a pretty decent article. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Cruciform_drives" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Cruciform...</a><p>They missed the offset cruciform tho. <a href="https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/" rel="nofollow">https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/</a>
I owned a honda motorcycle from the mid-70s for a while. I have a hammer actuated JIS impact driver, as a result: the crank-case was held on by 8 of the bloody things.
On of my most memorable courses in school was an evolutionary computation course. It dealt with algorithms like using genetic algorithms for search.<p>Interesting work.<p>One of the lectures I remember mentioned some work being done using genetic algorithms to design automotive fenders to absorb the greatest amount of energy.<p>I could imagine using GAs to design optimal screw heads. You'd need a set of restrictions, but I think physics models are well known and simple enough to do it.<p>Then there's the big question. What other common everyday objects do we overlook that could use a redesign using similar techniques?
Something I've found is that if I don't have precisely the right bit on hand, a sharp new Phillips bit will usually work well enough, and much better then a dull rounded one.