You may experience spring problems and ask yourself, “How is this so?” Well, believe it or not, below are 5 manufacturing mistakes to be known, in order to avoid future spring troubles.
Did you know that manufacturing mistakes can cause spring problems? Because it does!
Springs are simple materials that can be used in a wide range of applications.
Despite their simple build, great care, and attention has to be given to their design process, perhaps even going through the design sprint phases at certain points along the way, to ensure that the spring is right for the application it will be used.
This, therefore, makes it needful to know how to design a spring properly to ensure it suits its intended application.
If the spring’s design is in order, it would not break down easily or lead to serious problems within the application.
But what are these manufacturing mistakes that cause spring problems?
Read on to find out!
Common Spring Manufacturing Mistakes
In the selection of a proper spring for your application, it is important to seek an experienced spring manufacturer to help in the design process to avoid manufacturing mistakes.
Some of these manufacturing mistakes include:
1. Incorrect Material Selection
There are various spring materials, and each of them has different characteristics that give it an advantage over others.
These characteristics determine if they are more suitable in a particular application than another.
Also, a spring material should be selected based on the features that are required in the application.
Some of these features include water resistance, strength, corrosion resistance, temperature resistance, amongst others.
To that effect, spring problems can be avoided if the right spring material for an application is selected.
Types of Spring Materials:
- Titanium
- Alloy Steel
- Carbon Steel
- Cobalt-Nickel
- Stainless Steel
- Nickel Base Alloy
- Copper Base Alloy
Let’s take a look at some of these.
1. Stainless Steel
Some types of stainless steel springs are 17-7 PH spring, alloy 20 spring, CRES 18-8 spring, and NiCr A286 spring.
Others are stainless steel 301 spring, stainless steel 302 spring, stainless steel 304 spring, and stainless steel 316 spring.
Springs made of stainless steel do not corrode easily, and there are some alloys of stainless steel that have a higher resistivity to harsh temperatures.
2. Alloy Steel
Alloy steel is available as Chrome Silicon Springs and Chrome Vanadium Spring.
Chromium Vanadium, for instance, has physical and chemical properties, which give it its corrosion resistance, specific load tolerances, hardness, and stress-reliever characteristics.
That being the case, these types of steels can be used in high stress and high impact load applications.
3. Carbon Steel
Some springs that are made of carbon steel are AISI 1050 spring, hard drawn spring, music wire spring, oil tempered (OTMB) spring, and valve spring.
Let’s take music wire spring, for instance, it is corrosive resistant and, therefore, suitable for such environments.
Similarly, it can endure high stress due to its high tensile strength and high elastic limit.
For this reason, this material can deliver impressive performance in normal recurring applications.
These materials differ, and as such, you need to rely on the expertise of spring engineers to select the most appropriate material for your application.
2. Wrong Finish Selection
Spring problems can occur if these springs are susceptible to harsh conditions.
However, springs finishes or coatings are used for cosmetic reasons since they prevent rusting.
These coatings increase the spring’s level of resistance to harsh elements.
Much more, some springs are still made of stainless steel, which makes it necessary to use coatings on them – the use of coatings and finishes adds certain characteristics to these springs.
Nonetheless, it is more important to consider the application the spring will be put into even before selecting the correct finish.
Types of Spring Coatings:
1. Electroplating
Electroplating is used for its numerous benefits, including effectiveness and low cost.
It is one of the most common types of spring coating, and it is used in precision spring design.
2. Powder Coating
Larger springs can take advantage of powder coatings as their finishes.
A coating of this nature helps to achieve several colors for decorative purposes as well as corrosion resistance.
3. Organic Zinc Flake Coatings
Zinc flake coatings also come with corrosion resistance, and they have zero risks of hydrogen embrittlement.
This coating consists of flakes of zinc in a unique suspension of resin – it can either be applied on the spring by spraying, spinning, or dipping.
4. Pre-Plated Wire
Pre-plated wire can be used to coat mechanical springs.
The latter is made possible by drawing the spring wire through molten metal.
3. Spring Overstress Due to Improper Design
Overstress in the spring is evident when its force is extended from what it was designed to handle.
What causes this in the first place? You may wonder. But its a flaw in design!
As a result, more stress or force being applied to the spring than what it can handle can cause it to break down.
It’s, however, worth noting that spring overstress can be curbed by specific preventative adjustments.
4. Springback Due to Design
A stretched spring attempts to return to its original position after it has been released, and this is known as springback.
In a spring’s design, its springback must be taken into consideration in order to determine its proper bending angle.
Here, the bends are not be made too close to an edge if not, the material that is on either side might get damaged.
When that happens, it could tamper with the spring’s integrity.
5. Wrong End Types
A spring’s end type can affect its solid height, pitch, free length, number of active and total coils, and seating characteristics of the spring.
That being the case, the end type should be selected after gaining an understanding of the various spring end options and their functions.
The correct end type can also be selected after an understanding of the spring application demands.
Conclusion
Manufacturing mistakes can cause severe spring problems, which will, in turn, impact negatively on the application these springs are used.
These mistakes are numerous, ranging from the choice of the material, coating, and generally, the design of the spring.
Nonetheless, the proper spring for an application can still be designed by being wary of these problems and how to avoid them.
Your best bet is to get the expertise of a professional spring designer to choose a spring’s design that will be suitable for your application.