Certain things like bikes, cars, and furniture use hexagonal bolts for fastening. Hex bolts can only be used with the right diameter key and they don’t slip like Phillips and Flatheads. Also, the hexagonal tip keeps bolts from falling so you don’t need a magnet to hold your fasteners. Furthermore, it’s easy to identify which Allen key you need for each fastener, and you can use ballpoint hex keys if you need to work at an angle.
Since the hex bolt design is so practical, why don’t we use this type of fastener for everything? Why don’t we see hex wood screws and hex drywall screws ?
Edit : I’m asking about fasteners in general (like screws, bolts, etc)
In: Engineering
For fasteners using hex keys, There is the Metric set and there is the SAE set. some of them are really close to each other in terms of measurement but not quite the exact fit so if you use the wrong one it may damage both the fastener and/or the key.
In contrast, square heads have one set of sizes and Phillips has one set of sizes. Hex is more common where the fastening tool is included in assembly such as furniture.
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