Before Helicoil insert installation , the drilled hole has to be tapped with a Helicoil STI hand tap or machine tap of the correct tap size.

Types of Helicoil Taps available include:

Helicoil Taper Tap (Helicoil Roughing Tap)
- 4 thread chamfer
- used for difficult tapping operations and for starting tapping operations on difficult holes

Helicoil Intermediate Tap (Helicoil Finishing Tap)
- 4 thread chamfer
- used for hand or machine tapping in through holes and blind holes where ample chip clearance is available

Helicoil Plug Tap (Helicoil Bottoming Tap)
- 2 thread chamfer
- used for tapping blind holes where a maximum number of fully-formed threads are needed in minimum depth holes

Helicoil Spiral Flute Tap (Machine Tap)
- 2 thread chamfer
- can be used manually or attached to tapping drivers

Helicoil Spiral Point Tap (Machine Tap)
2 thread chamfer
- similar to spiral flute taps except that they are more suitable for through holes on less abrasive materials