I was thinking of writing an answer but just did a copy/paste from Wikipedia instead. Also, many bolts do have different end shapes.
"Set screws appear with a variety of tip (point) types. The different shaped tips have different properties that engineers can utilize. If an engineer were to use a detent to ensure proper nesting of the screw, they might choose to use a cone point type of screw. One might often need to use a flat point when the screw must press perfectly flat against a surface. The most common type is the cup point. This type works well because the surface is rounded so that a small surface area is in contact, but it does not have extremely high stress at one point like that of a cone point. Durability studies show that the cup point offers superior resistance to wear while maintaining a strong grip. Knurled cup points offer the added advantage of a locking action (similar to that of a serrated lock washer) that prevents the screws from working loose in high-vibration applications."
On Tue, Aug 29, 2023, 1:57 PM Peter Brooks <peter@...> wrote:
I have a dumb question - why are there flat, cup and cone termination varieties of grub screw, when bolts only (as far as I¡¯m aware) come in one style?
