CHAPTER 5: Springs

Springs
Spring is an elastic machine element that stores energy when loaded and recover its original shape when load is
removed
Application:
1. To cushion, absorb or control energy due to either shock or vibration as in
car springs, railway buffers, air-craft landing gears, shock absorbers and
vibration dampers.
2. To apply forces, as in brakes, clutches and spring-loaded valves.
3. To control motion by maintaining contact between two elements as in
cams and followers.
4. To measure forces, as in spring balances and engine indicators.
5. To store energy, as in watches, toys, etc.

Helical springs – are made up of a wire coiled in the form of a helix and is primarily intended for compressive
or tensile loads. The cross-section of the wire from which the spring is made may be circular, square or
rectangular.
Closely coiled – when the spring is coiled so close that the plane containing each turn is nearly at right angles to the axis
of the helix and the wire is subjected to torsion. Helix angle is usually less than 10 degrees.
Open coiled – is coiled in such a way that there is a gap between the two consecutive turns, as a result of which the helix
angle is large.

Conical and volute springs – are used in special applications where a telescoping spring or a spring with a
spring rate that increases with the load is desired. The conical spring is wound with a uniform pitch whereas
the volute springs are wound in the form of paraboloid with constant pitch and lead angles.

Torsional springs – are springs that may be of helical or spiral type.

Helical type – may be used only in applications where the load tends to wing up the spring and are used in various
electrical mechanisms.
Spiral type – is used where the load tends to increase the number of coils and when made of flat strip are used in
watches and clocks.

Laminated or leaf springs (flat spring or carriage spring) – consist of a number of flat plates (known as
leaves) of varying lengths held together by means of clamps and bolts.

Disc or Belleville springs – consist of a number of conical discs held together against slipping by a central
bolt or tube. These springs are used in applications where high spring rates and compact spring units are
required.

SPRING INDEX(C)
Dm- mean diameter
Dm D o−d w D i+ d w dw - wire diameter
C= = =
dW dW dW
Do - inside diameter
Di - inside diameter
SPRING FACTOR

WAHL’s FACTOR (K) BERSTRASSAR SHEAR FACTOR (KS) CURVE CORRECTION

FACTOR (KB) FACTOR (KC)
4 C−1 0.615 4 C+2 1 K
K= + K B= K S =1+ K c=
4 C−4 C 4 C−3 2C KS

MEMD-413: Machine Design 1 1

DEFLECTION OF SPRING (δ) TORSIONAL DEFLECTION OF SPRING SPRING RATE
(k)

8 F C3 n 16 F C 2 n F
δ= θ= k=
Gd W G dW 2 δ

IMPACT LOADING

1 1 1
m v 2= k δ 2 E spring = k δ 2
2 2 2

1
W ( h+δ )= k δ 2
2

SPRING SYSTEMS

SERIES
δ T =δ 1 +δ 2+ δ 3 F T =F 1=F 2=F3

F1 F 2 F 3
δ T= + +
K1 K2 K3

PARALLEL
δ T =δ 1=δ 2=δ 3 F T =F 1+ F2 + F 3

F1 F2 F3
δ= = =
K1 K2 K3
Problem Set (Springs):
1. A helical spring has a mean coil diameter of 1 inch and wire diameter of 1/8 inch. Compute the Wahl factor of the spring.
2. A spring has a rate of 50 lb with a spring index of 8. If stress in induced is 90000 psi, determine the wire diameter.
3. Determine the mean diameter of a helical spring using Bergstrasser factor if the load is 130 lb and spring index of 8 if the
maximum shearing stress of 50 ksi.
4. A helical spring is made from a wire of 6 mm diameter and has outside diameter of 75 mm. If the permissible shear stress is
350 MPa and modulus of rigidity 84 kN/mm2, find the axial load which the spring can carry neglecting the effect of
curvature. Determine the deflection per active turn.
5. A helical spring having squared and ground ends has a total of 24 coils and material modulus of elasticity in shear of 89
GPa. The spring has an outside diameter of 12 cm and a wire diameter of 0.65 cm. Compute the maximum deflection that
can be produced in the spring due to a load of 60 kg.
6. A body weighing 1000 lbs falls from a height of 6 in and strikes a 2000 lb/in spring. The deformation of the spring is:
7. Two extension coil spring are hooked in series that support a load of 100 kg. The first spring is rated at 4 kN/m and the other
spring is rated at 6 kN/m. Compute the total deflection of the springs.
8. All four compression coil spring support one load of 700 kg. All four springs are arranged in parallel and rated same at 0.609
kg/mm. Compute the deflection in mm.
9. A squared and ground ends spring has a pitch of 20 mm, wire diameter of 12.5 mm. If these are 12 actual number of coils,
find the deflection when the spring is compressed to its solid length.

MEMD-413: Machine Design 1 2

10. A spring with plain ends has 15 active coils, diameter of 6 mm and pitch of 10 mm. If spring rate is 100 kN/m, determine the
solid force.

MEMD-413: Machine Design 1 3