Deviations between planned and actual position of wood screws - consequences for minimum spacing

Occasionally, screw connections between timber members with crossed screw couples have shown harmful contact although minimum spacing was observed in design and execution. This aspect shows the necessity to realistically estimate deviations between the planned and actual screw axis. For that purpose, about 350 insertion tests with wood screws were conducted and evaluated in this study. The aims and results of the study concern the identification of some crucial parameters influencing deviations, the experimental determination of such deviations, and a proposal for a first tentative model predicting appropriate minimum spacing.