Hex head Tek heavy self-drilling screws are used when fixing into thicker grades of steel and they have a finer thread than the light option.
Self-drilling screws are a type of self tapping screw with a drill point at the end. This eliminates the need for a hole to be pre-drilled and enables the fastener to be fixed in one operation.
The drilling point of a self-drilling screw is given a number - the higher the number the thicker the material it is able to self drill into.
As a guide if you don’t know the number of the drill point on the screw you can measure the length of the drilling tip and this will give you an approximate maximum thickness of material it can drill through. We would recommend caution when using this method as if the thickness of the material being drilled exceeds the length of the drilling tip it can cause the screw to jam and tear the head off – it is always best to err on the side of caution.
This section of our guides and tips hub contains a library of helpful articles such as guides to using screws, screw specification sheets and product reviews on different types of screws such as woodscrews, self tapping screws and decking screws. If you can't find the information you are looking for here, please don't hesitate to get in contact with us!