Pan Head Screw Uses

Pan head screws have a large diameter, low height, flat top and flat underside bearing surface. The sides of a pan head are slightly rounded, but not as rounded as round head or button head screws. The head looks like an upside down frying pan.  The driving slot in a pan head screw is shallower than the driving slot found in other screws with protruding heads because the head height of a pan head screw is relatively short.  Pan head screw heads combine the properties of truss, binding and round head screws.

​The overall flatness of the top of the pan head machine screws provides more surface area for a driver to torque into.  This increased torque that's able to be be applied makes driving a pan head screw easier than a round head screw.

Pan Head Screw Use

Use pan head screws to secure together heavy components in places where having a raised screw head won't cause a problem.  Pan head screws distribute the holding force over a larger surface area making them less likely to pull through the outer material.

The pan head type is more often found in machine screws than wood screws.  Pan head screws are used often in industrial applications to hold machine components together - the large bearing surface of a pan head screw is useful in securing heavy metal parts.

Short pan head screws might be used to fasten together a case​ or enclosure, like an air conditioning unit enclosure.  Longer pan head screws might be used to hold a sconce to a wall, as the greater length and large pan head are needed to secure the sconce. Screws will have a designed load or bearing capacity.  Don't exceed this weight or risk having your fastened parts fall apart.

One common use of a pan head screw is to secure a license plate to a car or truck. States make their license plates with large screw holes in them, so the large bearing surface of a pan head screw is ideal to hold the large metal license plate securely to the vehicle.  Other exterior car parts like bumper covers or headlights may be secured to the car with a pan head.

If metal framing in used in building construction chances are ​pan head screws are used to secure the metal framing together.

A pan head shaped screw is a good candidate to produce a vented screw.  Vented screws have a hole bored through the center of them that allow trapped gas or liquid to escape through the hole.

Self-tapping Pan Head Screw

In industrial and machinery applications, pan head screws usually need the internal thread into which they're being driven to already exist. Even so, some pan head screws are made to be self-tapping.  We have used self-tapping pan head screws when fixing a cross brace that had pulled away from a garage door.  Since the internal thread was stripped when the old screws pulled out, we used self-tapping pan heads to reattach the brace.