About Phillips - A Historic View

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The Beginning of the Phillips Screw Company

Like everyone else, you’ve no doubt used countless Phillips screws, with their distinctive cruciform driving recesses. But did you ever wonder why such a new and innovative screw driving method came about in the first place, and why it became so universally used?

The answer emanates from the old but true axiom “invention is born of necessity” In the 1920’s, when traditional slotted screws were becoming a hindrance to American industry’s move toward mass production. The alignment time of the driver within the slot became significant when multiplied thousands of times in a factory, and as tightening torques increased the driver inevitably “cammed” out of the slot damaging the screw and often the component they were attempting to assemble.

Manufacturers needed an improved and more efficient screw driving design. An Oregon inventor named J.P. Thompson received a patent in 1933 for a cruciform-recessed screw that possesses self-centering of the driver to create correct engagement of the driver in the screw recess. Over the next six months Thompson approached many screw manufacturers, all of which said his screw was impossible to reproduce because the punch needed to create the recess would destroy the screw head. Thompson decided the whole idea was not manufacturable until he revealed his idea to an acquaintance named Henry Phillips who became intrigued with the idea and offered to buy the rights to the Patent.

Phillips, an engineer immediately formed the Phillips Screw Company and in 1934 began revisiting many of the same manufacturers that had rejected Thompson. He re-visited the nation’s biggest screw operation Providence RI Company called American Screw, where a new president named Eugene Clark had taken over. Clark was captivated by the design despite his engineer’s reservations. By 1936, after some modifications by Henry Phillips that earned him several patents of his own, and assisted by Eugene Clark who said quote, “I finally told my head men that I would put on pension all who insisted it could not be done”

The Phillips screw is born

Industry had been clamoring for an improved screw, so the Phillips design was quickly welcomed into American factories. General Motors became a quick convert by using the system in its 1937 Cadillac’s. By 1940, 85% of the screw manufacturing companies had a license to produce the Phillips screw recess design. As testimony to its success almost the entire automotive industry had shifted to using it. Usage of the Phillips drive system continued throughout the Second World War on many wartime products and vehicles.

By that time, however, Henry Phillips was out of the picture. Deteriorating health forced his retirement in 1945, and he maintained a low profile until his death in 1958. Phillips Screw Company now resides in the Boston suburbs. The firm remains a global leader in designing and licensing proprietary fastener drive systems for aerospace and commercial applications alike.

			PHILLIPS TIMELINE


			1933 John P. Thompson granted United States patent for a revolutionary cruciform drive system that will lay the foundation for the original Phillips® fastener drive system. Henry F. Phillips of Portland, Oregon forms the Phillips Screw Company with the financial backing of Jantzen Knitting Mills and joins Thompson to pursue a manufacturing partner that can devise a method to mass produce the patented cruciform screws. 1934 American Screw Company of Providence, Rhode Island, the oldest (1837) and largest screw manufacturer in North America, agrees to underwrite the development of a cold form process to produce cruciform screws. 1935 Henry F. Phillips purchases the rights to the Thompson patent and files a patent application that modifies the Thompson patent in order to make the cruciform drive system more adaptable to mass production. 1936 The improved cruciform recess fastener patent is issued and quickly becomes known as the “Phillips® Screw”. American Screw Company and Phillips Screw Company consolidate their efforts to introduce the Phillips screw to various industries and begin licensing screw and driver manufacturers to produce the new fastener system. 1937 The Cadillac Division of General Motors begins assembling all automobile models with the new Phillips screw system. 1939 85% of the global screw manufacturing industry becomes licensed to produce the Phillips screw system, including Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds (United Kingdom), largest fastener manufacturer in the world. 1945 Henry F. Phillips retires and the Company relocates to New York City. Shortly thereafter, the Company’s common stock begins trading on the American Stock Exchange. 1949 J.J. Tomalis, an American Screw engineer, incorporates a patented improvement into the Phillips drive system and the new screw is recognized as the official Phillips standard. 1958 Two American Screw engineers patent a new higher torquing off-set cruciform drive system, which Phillips begins licensing to aerospace fastener manufacturers under the tradestyles, Torq-Set® and Tri-Wing®. 1966 The last patent on the Phillips drive system expires and the system becomes generic. Phillips Screw Company begins licensing a new improved cruciform drive system under the tradestyle, Pozidriv®. Through Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, the master licensee outside North America, the improved drive system becomes an international standard and is widely accepted by international manufacturers outside the United States. 1977 Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds buys the worldwide patent and trademark rights to the Pozidriv fastener system outside of North America 1978 Rule Industries, a diversified manufacturer in Gloucester, Massachusetts, acquires the Phillips Screw Company. Frederick Simmonds, a Phillips sales engineer is issued a patent on a major improvement, applicable to all Phillips cruciform fastener drive systems, which significantly increases higher torquing capability for both insertion and removal. The improvement, marketed under the tradename ACR®, receives rapid acceptance by the global aerospace industry. 1984 International Standards Organization (ISO) in Geneva, Switzerland recognizes the ACR Torq-Set drive system as an international standard, the first time any proprietary fastener product has been so recognized. The ACR improvement is cited as “the first substantial development in fastener technology in over thirty years”. 1993 A small group of private investors purchases the Phillips Screw Company from Rule Industries. 1997 Phillips Screw Company forms a separate subsidiary, for the purpose of distributing proprietary fastener products, manufactured by its global licensee network, to retail consumer markets in North America. These products are sold under the brand names Deck Mate®, Phillips II®, Kwik Tap®, Phillips Plus® and Con-Grip®. 1998 Phillips Screw Company establishes a European division, based in Germany, to provide marketing support for its existing base of European Union licensees and establish distribution operations for proprietary fastener products, manufactured by its global licensee network, for consumer markets in Europe and the United Kingdom. 1999 Phillips Screw Company and W. Dodd Stacy of Creare, Inc. conclude an agreement that gives Phillips the exclusive rights to license a newly patented concept in a high performance cruciform drive system, that embodies a unique helix design, trademarked Mortorq®, which imparts extreme torquing capability with minimal recess depth and damage. 2002 Phillips’ distribution subsidiary, Phillips Fastener Products, Inc, gains recognition as an important supplier to both Home Depot and Lowe’s, the leading hardware home improvement retailers in North America. 2004 Phillips purchases Wrentham Tool Products, LLC in order to provide its global fastener licensees access to one of the broadest lines of both proprietary and generic fastener tooling and gauging in the world.