Hardware Products Blog

When Is a Spring Said to Be at “Solid Height”?

Used in a vast variety of machinery from simple mowers to advanced spacecraft, the purpose of a compression spring is to resist linear force through compression when a weight is applied to it either at the top or at the bottom of it. It is engineered to have a certain number of coils to provide the desired spring rate (see spring rate 101). And it is because of this number that the coils of the spring can only deflect so far before all of them start overlapping or touching each other. When all the coils are touching each other the spring is said to be at “solid height”.

Hydrogen Embrittlement and the Process of Electroplating Compression Springs

Very frequently – throughout different walks of life – we hear the term “it is plated.” When referring to jewelry, this usually means that it is not really gold but is made of some cheaper material and gold-plated to look like gold. Springs are very often plated for the same reason.

Compression Spring Parameters and Pi

Compression spring design formulas are really only somewhat complicated algebra. They are quite precise and yield very predictable results. However, when compression springs were first becoming widely used during the industrial revolution, neither computers nor calculators existed.