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Charlotte Stonestreet
Managing Editor |
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Custom designs aid manufacturing
23 June 2016
From engines to trim, toys to medical devices and instrumentation to valves, the Lee Spring capability to quickly create application specific springs and spring components is aiding the regrowth of UK manufacturing industry.
Although Lee Spring carries over 23,000 catalogued items, it is just as common to find that a variant or complete custom item is required to suit a new design or new assembly process. A special spring design may add quality to product operation or its longevity, often with significant savings in component cost and/or assembly time.
Lee Spring's technical and cultural capability, derived from experience since 1918 working alongside customers, enables the company to develop project specifications to international standards such as RoHS, REACH and DFARS. Teams can guide customers through the specification prototyping, development/trials process to final sign-off and mainline production. This includes full CAD modelling on to prototyping and supply chain management for commercial, industrial, aerospace and military sectors. Custom springs may be stocked in depth to meet customer demand schedules so enabling efficient and timely delivery wherever required worldwide.
Typical custom variants of standard springs include varying finishes, alternative materials for enhanced performance, polishing or coating, non-standard loadings, non-standard sizes, matching to suit exceptional environments, demands for extreme longevity or specific concerns regarding materials matching etc. A common request is to meet tighter tolerances required for specialist housing designs. This custom process encompasses special standards requirements, non-standard finishes – for aesthetic or functional reasons, such as colour matching or colour coding, special shapes, special end forming, retaining clips – wire forms and stampings/other formed metal parts (fourslide parts), trim clips etc.
Specification of custom springs or components can involve production in materials such as beryllium copper, brass, hard drawn carbon steel, oil tempered carbon steel, oil tempered chrome silicon, oil tempered chrome vanadium, Elgiloy, Hastelloy, Inconel, Monel, music wire, phosphor bronze, plastic composites, 300 series stainless steel, 17-7 stainless steel.
A vital part of custom design of course is the selection of secondary operations such as assembly, colour coding, electro-polishing, grinding, heat treating, looping, passivation, powder coating, shot peening, spring setting, plating e.g. with nickel or zinc and use of other special finishes e.g. black oxide.
Enhanced corrosion resistance
The Lee Spring catalogue range of high quality ex-stock compression springs now includes wire sizes of 2mm (0.080") upward in AISI 316 stainless steel which provides an enhanced degree of corrosion resistance, particularly to chloride attack. This makes the new series preferentially suited to marine environments and wash-down areas where chloride atmospheres and chemicals may be encountered. These new wire sizes offer up to 660 Newtons or 148lbs of loading force.
These standard format springs are passivated and ultrasonically cleaned with squared and ground ends for most items. This offers greater usability and stability than non-squared and ground versions which are available to custom requirements. Stainless steel type 316 improves corrosion resistance with the presence of molybdenum and decreased carbon content. Existing sister products continue to be available in plated music wire and AISI 302 stainless steel to suit the wider field of industrial applications.
Lee Spring compression designs are suited to many applications ranging from food processing machines and shipboard/oil and gas platforms or shoreline equipment, also internal combustion engines and large stamping presses through to major appliances and lawn mowers to medical devices, mobile phones, electronics and sensitive instrumentation equipment.
Key Points
- Typical custom variants of standard springs include varying finishes, alternative materials for enhanced performance, polishing or coating and non-standard loadings
- Other services include matching to suit exceptional environments, meeting demands for extreme longevity or specific concerns regarding materials matching
- A vital part of custom design is the selection of secondary operations such as assembly, colour coding, electro-polishing, grinding and heat treating
