Do you know what a machined spring is?
An
Abssac product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 14, 2001
For those engineers familiar with the traditional wound spring format, Abssac is offering a new way of looking at reliability, performance and attachment of this widely used product range
For those engineers familiar with the traditional wound spring format, Abssac is offering a new way of looking at reliability, performance and attachment of this widely used product range.
Whilst we all agree that traditional wire wound springs have numerous bonifide applications, the very nature of how they are manufactured can limit their reliability and performance in the more demanding or high duty cycle spring applications.
Machined springs, as many of our existing customers have found, are more useful than you may first think! As with its wire wound brother, all types of spring format such as, compression, extension, torsion, lateral translation and lateral bending springs are available in the machined format.
However, from this point the similarities between wound and machined springs stop.
Primarily, all machined springs are designed and manufactured for a specific application and purpose, there are no stock items as such.
There are three key advantages of machined springs.
Firstly, a machined spring has the capability to be designed with features or functions incorporated into single piece part.
This can be in the form of gears, cams, tangs, threaded attachment bores, the list is endless and only limited by the design engineer's capability to incorporate his own attachments around the machined springs desired performance.
With the wire wound equivalent, any additional features have to be welded or braised to the spring, which can be an area of weakness and propagate over time.
The design engineer may also have reliability issues with attaching the additional features to the wound spring design.
Secondly, the performance.
Machined springs can provide very precise, linear deflection rates because virtually all-residual stresses are eliminated.
As a result, there are no internal stresses to overcome before deflection occurs, which can be the case in the wire wound spring.
In addition to this we can offer multiple start spring coil configurations.
The most common configuration is the single start spring, which consists of a single continuous coil element, which starts at one end and terminates at the other end, much like its wire wound counterpart.
A double start spring has two intertwined continuous coil elements.
In effect, this puts two independent helixes in the same cylindrical plane.
Multiple start flexures, such as triple start etc., are similar extensions of this concept.
The advantages of Multiple start spring elements are beneficial because they not only provide redundant elastic elements should a failure occur, but a failed element (coil) will be physically trapped by the remaining one and in many cases will allow the albeit reduced function of the spring design to still operate.
Another multi-start benefit applies to compression and tension springs, as when compressed (or extended), single start springs provide a reaction force plus a moment.
On multiple start flexures, all internal moments are resolved within the spring itself which translates into very straight compression or extension.
There is no tendency for the spring to squirm when deflected, and no restraint is necessary to resolve the free moment.
Thirdly, the issue of reliability.
The machined spring by its nature of design utilizes the latest techniques of finite element analysis to investigate the areas of stress within the design modulus.
Before the part is produced we can tell you whether the internal stress levels are too high or within limits.
Machined springs also can be manufactured from a variety of materials such as high strength steel, stainless steel, aluminium, titanium, and machineable plastics.
The ends of machined springs can be made very square, a beneficial feature for compression springs.
Attachments for torsional springs can be integrated so that no forces act upon the spring, just the movement enabling torsional deflections.
Extension (tension) springs can include robust attachments that are resistant to breakage.
The next time you require a spring in a critical or high duty cycle environment, the machined spring from Abssac Limited may be the answer to your design problems.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Contact Abssac
Tel +44 1386 833301
Other Abssac stories
-
Springs machined from solid metal
Machined springs can provide very precise, linear deflection rates because virtually all residual stresses are eliminated. -
Machined springs promise predictable torque
Torsion springs machined entirely from a single piece of material with coil elements predetermined using finite element analysis ensure the predicted spring rate is delivered every time. -
Machined springs solve battlefield noise problems
For those engineers familiar with the traditional wound spring format, Abssac is offering a new way of looking at reliability, performance and attachment by use of a machined spring. -
Machined springs overcome wound limitations
For those engineers familiar with the traditional wound spring format, Abssac is offering a new way of looking at reliability, performance and attachment by use of a machined spring. -
Heli-Cal beam coupling product enhances designs
Abssac believes its Heli-Cal beam coupling product is helping customers take their standard coupling designs to the next level by incorporating features into the original shaft coupling design.
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,420)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (518)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,106)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (468)
- Production line blowers and fans (64)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (940)
- Consultancy and Services (909)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,064)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (807)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (187)
- Control and Instrumentation (2)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (295)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (202)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,183)
- Plantwide control (1,335)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (569)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (388)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,393)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (1)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,283)
- Industrial Motors (500)
- Linear Drives and Motors (115)
- Precision Motors and Gears (418)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,074)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,203)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (558)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (691)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (635)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (1)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (371)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (712)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (425)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (810)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,226)
- 2D CAD software (201)
- 3D CAD software (1,162)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (571)
- Data, document management software (313)
- Electrical design software (165)
- Engineering Design Software (15)
- FEA and structural analysis software (374)
- File conversion software, data capture (355)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (334)
- Materials design and moulding design software (152)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (318)
- PLM and collaboration software (652)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (260)
- Publishing and documentation software (230)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (200)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (924)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,125)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (278)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (430)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (844)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (566)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (353)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (635)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (402)
- Engineering Training Courses (440)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (175)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (278)
- Health and Safety Legislation (402)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (114)
- Machine Building (4,563)
-
Materials and Processing (2,986)
- Materials and components (2,233)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (288)
- Rapid Prototyping (460)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,524)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (479)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (497)
- Data loggers (421)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (635)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (729)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (444)
- Materials testing equipment (420)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (156)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (508)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,234)
-
Powertrain Design (3,646)
- Bearings (956)
- Chains and belts (329)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,455)
- Hydraulic Components (473)
- Lubricants (430)
- Powertrain Design (2)
-
Sensors (7,141)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (432)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (621)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (286)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (155)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (529)
- Linear Position Sensors (408)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (710)
- Pressure sensors (625)
- Proximity Sensors (708)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (551)
- Sensors (8)
- Temperature sensors (613)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,392)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (1,987)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,652)
