M12 Bolt

The ISO metric screw thread is the most commonly used type of general-purpose screw thread worldwide. They were one of the first international standards agreed when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was set up in 1947.

The "M" designation for metric screws indicates the nominal outer diameter of the screw thread, in millimetres. This is also referred to as the "major" diameter in the information below. It indicates the diameter of smooth-walled hole that a male thread (e.g. on a bolt) will pass through easily to create a well-located connection to an internally threaded component (e.g. a nut) on the other side. That is, an M6 screw has a nominal outer diameter of 6 millimetres and will therefore be a well-located, co-axial fit in a hole drilled to 6 mm diameter.

Basic profile

The design principles of ISO general-purpose metric screw threads ("M" series threads) are defined in international standard ISO 68-1. Each thread is characterized by its major diameter, ''D'' (''D''_maj in the diagram), and its pitch, ''P''. ISO metric threads consist of a symmetric V-shaped thread. In the plane of the thread axis, the flanks of the V have an angle of 60° to each other. The thread depth is 0.54125 × pitch. The outermost and the innermost of the height ''H'' of the V-shape are cut off from the profile.

The relationship between the height ''H'' and the pitch ''P'' is found using the following equation where ''θ'' is half the included angle of the thread, in this case 30°:

:$H = \frac \cdot P = \frac \cdot P \approx 0.866025 \cdot P$

or

:$P = 2\tan\theta\cdot H = \frac \cdot H \approx 1.154701 \cdot H$

In an external (male) thread (e.g. on a bolt), the major diameter ''D''_maj and the minor diameter ''D''_min define ''maximum'' dimensions of the thread. This means that the external thread must end flat at ''D''_maj, but can be rounded out below the minor diameter ''D''_min. Conversely, in an internal (female) thread (e.g. in a nut), the major and minor diameters are ''minimum'' dimensions; therefore the thread profile must end flat at ''D''_min but may be rounded out beyond ''D''_maj. In practice this means that one can measure the diameter over the threads of a bolt to find the nominal diameter ''D''_maj, and the inner diameter of a nut is ''D''_min.

The minor diameter ''D''_min and effective pitch diameter ''D''_p are derived from the major diameter and pitch as

:\begin
D_\text &= D_\text - 2\cdot\frac58\cdot H = D_\text - \frac\cdot P \approx D_\text - 1.082532 \cdot P \\ pt D_\text &= D_\text - 2\cdot\frac38\cdot H = D_\text - \frac\cdot P \approx D_\text - 0.649519 \cdot P
\end

Designation

A metric ISO screw thread is designated by the letter M followed by the value of the nominal diameter ''D'' (the maximum thread diameter) and the pitch ''P'', both expressed in millimetres and separated by the multiplication sign, ''×'' (e.g. M8×1.25). If the pitch is the normally used "coarse" pitch listed in ISO 261 or ISO 262, it can be omitted (e.g. M8).

The length of a machine screw or bolt is indicated by a following ''×'' and the length expressed in millimetres (e.g. M8×1.25×30 or M8×30).

Tolerance classes defined in ISO 965-1 can be appended to these designations, if required (e.g. M500– 6g in external threads). External threads are designated by lowercase letter, g or h. Internal threads are designated by upper case letters, G or H.

Preferred sizes

ISO 261 specifies a detailed list of preferred combinations of outer diameter ''D'' and pitch ''P'' for ISO metric screw threads.
ISO 262 specifies a shorter list of thread dimensions – a subset of ISO 261.

The thread values are derived from rounded Renard series. They are defined in ISO 3, with "1st choice" sizes being from the Rˈˈ10 series and "2nd choice" and "3rd choice" sizes being the remaining values from the Rˈˈ20 series.

The ''coarse'' pitch is the commonly used default pitch for a given diameter. In addition, one or two smaller ''fine'' pitches are defined, for use in applications where the height of the normal ''coarse'' pitch would be unsuitable (e.g. threads in thin-walled pipes). The terms ''coarse'' and ''fine'' have (in this context) no relation to the manufacturing quality of the thread.

In addition to coarse and fine threads, there is another division of extra fine, or ''superfine'' threads, with a very fine pitch thread. Superfine pitch metric threads are occasionally used in automotive components, such as suspension struts, and are commonly used in the aviation manufacturing industry. This is because extra fine threads are more resistant to coming loose from vibrations. Fine and superfine threads also have a greater minor diameter