Metallics TP527SBC Screws 12 x 1/2 Btn Hx Pin TR SMS 18- (100 pcs)

The TP527SBC is a #12 x 1/2 inch button head tamper-resistant sheet metal screw with a pin-in-hex (hex socket with a center pin) drive. It is sold 100 pieces to the box.

No. The TP527SBC has a pin in the center of the hex recess, so a solid Allen wrench or standard hex bit will not seat. You need a hollow pin-hex (pin-in-socket) driver bit sized to the recess. That pin is the whole point of the screw: without the matching bit, nobody is backing it out.

A 1/2 inch length is sized for sheet metal and thin panel work, which is where these get used: enclosure covers, device plates, strut and channel accessories, and similar light-gauge attachments. Sheet metal screw threads cut their own hold in the metal, but with only 1/2 inch of total length you have very little thread engagement left over, so it is not the screw for thick stock or for anchoring into wood framing.

The button head on the TP527SBC gives a low, rounded profile with no flats and no exposed edge to grab with pliers or a wrench. On security covers, meter and enclosure doors, and any fixture in a public area, that rounded crown is as much of the tamper resistance as the pin in the drive. A hex washer head, by contrast, can be turned with a socket by anyone.

One hundred pieces per box. For a property manager or MRO buyer standardizing tamper-resistant fasteners across a building, a single box covers a lot of covers and plates, but order the matching pin-hex driver bits at the same time, since the screws come without them.