Coil Springs

Springs are vital to vehicles because they support the weight of your car and allow it to remain stable even in rough
driving conditions. They have the ability to expand when you hit dips on the road and compress when you encounter
bumps or cut into hard corners. A certain kind of spring, called air spring, can also keep your trunk off of the ground
and determine ride height, which in turn influences steering and suspension.
There are different types of springs for each kind of automobile and truck depending on your vehicle's suspension
design, but the the most common is the coil spring. A coil spring (also called helical spring) is a kind of torsion spring
which can store energy and release it later when needed. It can also absorb shock and maintain the force between
two contacting surfaces.
Together with a shock absorber, coil springs are pre-assembled as one coil over unit before installation. While the coil
spring compresses and stretches to keep you safe as you drive, the shock absorber keeps you from road noise,
bumps, and vibrations that you might encounter while doing so. All in all, a coil over is essential in your vehicle's
suspension because it gives you optimal damping, good handling and braking, and a comfortable ride all at the same
time.

Coil Springs Articles

 Important Facts You Need to Know About Coil Springs

One of the indispensable parts of the suspension system is the coil spring. This suspension part is actually a
helically-shaped steel bar that absorbs the shock resulting from the tires' contact with the road. When your vehicle's
front wheels run over a bump or a pothole, the coil spring compresses and absorbs the impact. As soon as the road
becomes even again, the spring releases the energy and returns to its original state. Because of this shock-absorbing
function, your vehicle's coil springs are usually built to be tough and damage-resistant. Some OE coil springs are
even vinyl-coated for corrosion resistance and noise reduction. However, several conditions such as frequent vehicle
overloading, fatigue, and overuse may leave your vehicle's coil springs weak and brittle. When the time comes that
your vehicle needs new coil springs, don't hesitate to visit Auto Parts Deal. We offer premium coil spring at affordable
prices. 

• Our coil springs effectively absorb shocks to ensure comfortable, smooth driving despite road irregularities. 

• A coil spring from us resists corrosion and other premature damage, guaranteeing a long-lasting service life. 

• A high-quality coil spring is also designed to withstand heavy loads. 

The Manufacturing Process
The following description focuses on the manufacture of steel-alloy, coiled springs.

Coiling
 1 Cold winding. Wire up to 0.75 in (18 mm) in diameter can be coiled at room
temperature using one of two basic techniques. One consists of winding the wire
around a shaft called an arbor or mandrel. This may be done on a dedicated
spring-winding machine, a lathe, an electric hand drill with the mandrel secured
in the chuck, or a winding machine operated by hand cranking. A guiding
mechanism, such as the lead screw on a lathe, must be used to align the wire
into the desired pitch (distance between successive coils) as it wraps around the
mandrel.
Alternatively, the wire may be coiled without a mandrel. This is generally done
with a central navigation computer (CNC) machine.

Examples of different types of springs.

The wire is pushed forward over a support block toward a grooved head that deflects the
wire, forcing it to bend. The head and support block can be moved relative to each other
in as many as five directions to control the diameter and pitch of the spring that is being
formed.

For extension or torsion springs, the ends are bent into the desired loops, hooks,
or straight sections after the coiling operation is completed.
  2 Hot winding. Thicker wire or bar stock can be coiled into springs if the metal is heated
to make it flexible. Standard industrial coiling machines can handle steel bar up to 3 in
(75 mm) in diameter, and custom springs have reportedly been made from bars as much
as 6 in (150 mm) thick. The steel is coiled around a mandrel while red hot. Then it is
immediately removed from the coiling machine and plunged into oil to cool it quickly and
harden it. At this stage, the steel is too brittle to function as a spring, and it must
subsequently be tempered.

Hardening
 3 Heat treating. Whether the steel has been coiled hot or cold, the process has created
stress within the material. To relieve this stress and allow the steel to maintain its
characteristic resilience, the spring must be tempered by heat treating it. The spring is
heated in an oven, held at the appropriate temperature for a predetermined time, and
then allowed to cool slowly. For example, a spring made of music wire is heated to
500°F (260°C) for one hour.

Finishing
 4 Grinding. If the design calls for flat ends on the spring, the ends are ground at this
stage of the manufacturing process. The spring is mounted in a jig to ensure the correct
orientation during grinding, and it is held against a rotating abrasive wheel until the
desired degree of flatness is obtained. When highly automated equipment is used, the
spring is held in a sleeve while both ends are ground simultaneously, first by coarse
wheels and then by finer wheels. An appropriate fluid (water or an oil-based substance)
may be used to cool the spring, lubricate the grinding wheel, and carry away particles
during the grinding.
 5 Shot peening. This process strengthens the steel to resist metal fatigue and cracking
during its lifetime of repeated flexings. The entire surface of the spring is exposed to a
barrage of tiny steel balls that hammer it smooth and compress the steel that lies just
below the surface.
 6 Setting. To permanently fix the desired length and pitch of the spring, it is fully
compressed so that all the coils touch each other. Some manufacturers repeat this
process several times.
 7 Coating. To prevent corrosion, the entire surface of the spring is protected by
painting it, dipping it in liquid rubber, or plating it with another metal such as zinc
or chromium. One process, called mechanical plating, involves tumbling the
spring in a container with metallic powder, water, accelerant chemicals, and tiny
glass beads that pound the metallic powder onto the spring surface.
Alternatively, in electroplating, the spring is immersed in an electrically
conductive liquid that will corrode the plating metal but not the spring. A negative
electrical charge is applied to the spring. Also immersed in the liquid is a supply
of the plating metal, and it is given a positive electrical charge. As the plating
metal dissolves in the liquid, it releases positively charged molecules that are
attracted to the negatively charged spring, where they bond chemically.
Electroplating makes carbon steel springs brittle, so shortly after plating (less
 than four hours) they must be baked at 325-375°F (160-190°C) for four hours to
counteract the embrittlement.

 8 Packaging. Desired quantities of springs may simply be bulk packaged in boxes or

plastic bags. However, other forms of packaging have been developed to minimize
damage or tangling of springs. For example, they may be individually bagged, strung
onto wires or rods, enclosed in tubes, or affixed to sticky paper.

Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Springs.html#ixzz5KUEpXlPS

Coil Spring Manufacturing

Springs have been manufactured by Kilen since 1852 and today Kilen is the largest manufacturer in
Europe for aftermarket chassis springs. Kilen's state of the art factory is designed to meet the
demands of quality, flexibility and environment for many years into the future.

Every spring is manufactured from high quality spring steel. There are many steel mills around the
world, but only a few are specialised enough to produce the high quality steel needed for modern
suspension springs with high stress levels.

Depending on the design, pre-heat treated (oil-quenched) or annealed (unquenched) wire is used.

When pre-heat treated wire is used all springs are stress relieved directly in line after the coiling
process. Springs manufactured from annealed wire are hardened and tempered after the coiling
operation, to give the required high strength. In both cases the steel will have the same spring
quality characteristics.

Cold Coiling

The wire is cold formed to spring shape in computer controlled automatic coiling machines.

As opposed to hot coiling, which usually requires a specific mandrel tool for each design, cold coiling
gives good flexibility, without mandrels, to easily vary the coil diameters, pitch and number of coils.

Heat Treatment

During cold coiling, negative internal stresses are introduced in to the spring material, and must be
removed using a stress relieving heat treatment, following the hardening and tempering processes.
Grinding 

Some chassis spring designs have one or both ends ground. At Kilen this grinding is done in special
computer controlled spring grinding machines.

Shot Peening and Presetting

After heat treatment, it is very important to introduce and control the level of positive residual
stresses in the material. This is achieved via shot peening and presetting operations.

The positive residual stress reduces the sheer stress in the spring during compression, raising
spring performance to specified levels.
Whilst introducing positive residual stresses, shot peening also prepares the spring material for the
surface treatment processes of zinc phosphating and painting. The above photograph shows a
spring before and after shot peening.

The presetting or scragging operation involves compressing the spring to implement a positive
residual stress.

All

Kilen coil springs are protected from corrosion using the galvanic protection method of zinc
phosphating before painting. This technique effectively protects the steel against corrosion even if
defects occur in the paint layer.

The spring is then painted using an epoxy powder coating process, before the production and batch
numbers are applied via ink-jet printing to each spring.
Please watch the below video to see the coil spring production process in action!