I’ve decided I rather like the sound of the word “lobular”. Say it a few times and it rather rolls of one’s tongue!

As a prolific pole building contractor in the 1990’s (yeah, way back in the pre-Y2K days), I ran as many as 35 pole building crews in six states. We built a LOT of pole buildings!

We were very picky about quality – my company employed a staff of four, a supervisor and three other field staff, who interacted with our clients regularly and inspected every single building both during and after construction to maintain quality control.

Often, I myself would go visit our completed buildings. One thing which must have bothered me, more than it bothered our clients (as none of them ever complained about it), was seeing all of the “shiny” spots on the sidewalls of the beautiful brand new buildings from where the paint had been chipped off from the color matched screws.

Powder Coated Screws

After the forming of Hansen Pole Buildings, one of our suppliers came to us with what equates to a “better mouse trap”. Powder Coated screws. For those who are familiar with powder coating, it is far superior to wet paint applications.

In order to maintain the integrity of the powder coated surface on the screw heads, it is essential to use the correct driver bits.

Bits with a lobular design are the only type which should be used with a powder coated screw.

On a standard driver bit, the “points” of the screw are grabbed by the bit. It is easy to envision how a bit such as this could (and indeed does) take any painted material off from the screw head.

In the lobular design, stripping damage is reduced by the screw being driven in on the sides, instead of forcing the corners to turn.

The other key to good screw installation is to not overuse a bit. Worn bits damage the corners of the screws. A bit should really be used for no more than 800 to 1000 screws. If seeing any damage to the paint, either an incorrect driver is being used, or the driver should be discarded.