music wire springs
music wire springs
(OP)
I just wound a .146 dia. music wire to make a spring 1.60 ID x 7 inches long spring to operate inside a hydraulic cylinder but it isn't very strong. Any suggestions as to making is stronger. I have a small 1/8 inch spring that seems stronger. Does it need any heat treatment?





RE: music wire springs
How many coils in the spring? These are just a fraction of the missing information that is needed for a successful design of springs.
Try to calulate the spring properties before blindly wind an arbitrary wire. Any college mechanical design book such as from Shigley, Norton, Faires, etc., gives the basic formulations for mechanical spring design. This can be a starting point but much more knowledge and experience is needed.
Your post clearly points to the fact that you do not have the minimum basic knowledge for mechanical spring design. If you do not know why a shorter spring (less coils) is stronger than longer spring then you should study the matter first or seek professional. If you do not know if a Music wire can be heat treated or not the situation is even worst.
I am sorry for being blunt but it is the time that before posting a question a minimum effort must be done by reading, googling, etc., otherwise, even the language and wording of the posing and question is wrong.
RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
You need to start by detailing the requirements for your "hydraulic" press, i.e., how many pounds of force, etc. My first impression would be that you need a substantially beefier spring, like a garage door spring, or a return coil for a light car.
iano wire is intended to vibrate, hence, their material selection and design results in a relatively low spring constant, which cannot be readily altered after the fact.
TTFN
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RE: music wire springs
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RE: music wire springs
This has nothing like torquing a bolt. When you torque a bolt you stress it within the elastic limit of the bolt. The gain is a more rigid assembly.
What you refer to is a preset process (set remove or scaragging, etc. as it sometimes called). This process intentionally yields the spring wire deeply into the plastic zone. After the load removal the spring will become shorter but will have residual internal compressive stresses that are beneficial for higher loads. However, you need to specially design the springs as such. It will not help if the spring was not intentially designed for it.
This is a very advanced subject in the field of spring design and it is beyond the scope of this forum.
In fact, I am currently involve in a torsion spring design where a preset process is essential to achieve the desired torque from the spring in a very confined space.
RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
Torquing a bolt will increase fatigue life only if the mated surfaces are much more rigid (usually ~10X) than the bolt rigidity. The process doesn't make the bolt stronger, the superior rigidity of the assembly is what improves the life fatigue by reducing the additional stresses on the bolt due to cyclic load/pressure that tends to separate the mated surfaces.
On the other hand the preset process actually makes the spring stronger and allow the spring to resist higher stresses.
The spring in this post is indeed a compression spring and it can be presetted by loading it at the production process beyond (far beyond) the yield point. Torsion springs can be presetted too if they are later on working only to one direction (the same loading direction).
RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
The fact that you could wind your spring at all ought to tell you that the material is probably unsuitable for the job you require.
Have you looked at McMaster&Carr: http://www.mcmaster.com/#mechanical-springs/=th9s4 and see if there's something appropriate, already off-the-shelf.
TTFN
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RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
Which is correct, "push a piston 6" or "travel of 4.5?"
Either way, the answer is probably "unobtainium." Any spring that can compress to 1/4 or 1/5 of its uncompressed extension is not going to be a terribly strong spring.
TTFN
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RE: music wire springs
RE: music wire springs
A quick check suggest that such a spring at OD=1.9375 is quite impractical even with more expensive spring wire and even with a preset process.
RE: music wire springs
TTFN
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RE: music wire springs
I have to disagree. If the force requirements for this spring was let say 40 lb instead of the 50 lb it was possible to design a spring at those dimensions using other spring materials such as 17-7PH CH900 in combination with a deep preset. However, such spring can not be found on the shelf and it will cost much more than the $20 per spring.