Product category:
Springs, dampers, latches, locks and small components
News Release from: Abssac | Subject: Machined springs
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 05 June 2002
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.
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 While we all agree that traditional wire wound springs have numerous bona fide 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
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 14 Aug 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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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, as many existing Abssac customers have found, are more useful than they may appear.
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.
Further reading
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.
Springs machined from solid metal
Machined springs can provide very precise, linear deflection rates because virtually all residual stresses are eliminated.
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 Abssac 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.
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 multistart 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 excellent compression or extension parallelism.
There is no tendency for the spring to squirm when deflected, and no restraint is necessary to resolve the free moment.
Double- and triple-start variants make the loading points irrelevant on the radius of the spring but increase the accuracy of parallelism With the machined spring, perpendicularity, parallelism, lateral bending, axial and torsional rates can be guaranteed. Request a free brochure from Abssac ...
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