Everything You Need to Know About Wave Springs

HEGONG SPRING supply professional and honest service.

Wave springs are compression springs with a flat design and &#;Multiple waves per turn&#; design to the coils.

This combination can significantly increase the compression of this spring compared to other designs. Please read our article to discover how valuable a wave spring can be.

Wave Springs Explained

Instead of rounded coils, wave springs coils are flattened; and each coil is strengthened with an arcing wave pattern for flexibility. This unique design gives the wave spring the same force as its traditional counterpart whilst lighter and smaller.

Compared to its classic competitor, the wave spring is a new invention that didn&#;t emerge until 50 years ago. Nevertheless, they have quickly risen in popularity and are the preferred choice of spring for many manufacturers.

They can vary from large to small diameters, heavy-duty or light parts. They&#;re also made from various materials, from carbon steel to more unusual materials for any bespoke requirements. With the ability to configure them to any task, they&#;ve been used in thousands of different machines in hundreds of industries.

A Wave Spring for Every Job

Along with the standard wave spring, there are several types of wave spring to choose from. The variety of these sub-wave spring types each have their specialities and benefits, so contacting your preferred spring manufacturers and browsing your possible choices is a good idea.

• Crest-to-crest wave springs are the full name of the standard wave spring.
• Crest-to-crest wave springs + shim ends. Help reduce height more and provide 360-degree surface contact
• Single turn wave springs have gap and overlap styles to replace stamp wave washers
• Wavo wave springs are the rule-breakers as they have round wire instead of the standard flat for increased forces but at an increased size.
• Nested Wave Springs are pre-stacked from a single continuous filament.

Why Wave Springs are Leading the Way

The main benefit a wave spring can bring to your design over traditional coil springs is that it gives you more for less. Choosing wave springs helps optimise your assembly design into a more efficient design.

Compact Design

The primary way they give you more for less is in their physical dimensions. For example, a standard wave spring can be reduced to half the height of your existing coil spring and still do the same job. Additionally, they can have a smaller circumference to fit in tight radial spaces, minimising their cavity size.

Flexible Design

With our extensive experience as wave spring manufacturers, we can certainly attest to the seemingly infinite choices available when designing with wave springs. We have designed wave springs to fit any specifications or assembly requirements. The material type, thickness, and end type are just details that the spring can be customised to suit.

Predictable and Reliable.

It doesn&#;t matter if it&#;s a dynamic load or static that your spring needs to hold. A tested wave spring can be trusted to keep to those results for many years of use reliably.

Unique Materials

When you need a wave spring, you need to consider the environment it will be working in. Choosing the wrong material will be an early death sentence for your wave spring, with the environment significantly reducing the spring&#;s life cycle. Please don&#;t hesitate to contact our team to discuss which material is suitable for your project.

This more compact design and lightweight assembly can save the manufacturer time and production costs. As a result, the wave spring has become the go-to choice for a compression spring when space is limited.

For more information, please visit wavesprings.

Be careful when choosing which spring is suitable for you. It&#;s important to note that wave springs are designed for compression only, so if your design requires springs for suspension, tension or torsion, you will want to consider a different spring design, like the ones on our website.

Where You Could Find Wave Springs

Wave springs have been adopted into various industries worldwide, in everything from:

• Aerospace
• Car industry
• Off-highway
• Oil and gas industries

You&#;d be surprised to find out how many different machines need a wave spring to function. They can be found in everyday objects like the smartwatch on your wrist or in an oil well deep in the earth. As a result, wave springs have become essential to our modern way of life.

The most common use for wave springs is flow valves. Across many different industries, hundreds of companies will be using flow valves that contain wave springs.

Additional use is in vibration isolators. This equipment is essential to help dampen the vibrations and provide predictable loading every time, but it wouldn&#;t work without the wave spring.

Wave springs have replaced standard coil springs because of the space-saving benefits mentioned earlier in this article. Additionally, the linear style of the spring allows a far greater compression of 80% over the traditional coil.

70 Years of High-Quality Springs

Wave springs are the product of new space-saving technologies that are now replacing the standard coil spring, with Wave springs being smaller and using fewer materials, the benefits to production costs alone.

Here at European Springs, we are committed to assisting our customers with finding the right products for their design or assembly. We also offer a wide range of other high-quality springs in a catalogue online. For more information on wave springs or any of our other springs, pressings, and metal components, please don&#;t hesitate to get in touch, and a member of our team will be more than happy to help you out.

Wave springs are a versatile type of spring with a unique design. They offer a more compact solution than a coil spring for applications requiring some form of loading. In this Ask the Expert blog, we'll delve into the factors influencing the force a wave spring can output.

Wave springs are characterized by their wavy design, allowing them to compress and expand within a reduced space. This makes them ideal for applications where size and weight constraints are important. Structurally different from coil springs, wave springs have their own parameters influencing their compression force.

Factors Influencing Maximum Compression Force of a Wave Spring

1. Material Properties

• The choice of material significantly impacts a wave spring's performance. Materials with higher tensile strength and fatigue resistance can handle greater compression forces. Check out our more common materials in our Materials section. 

2. Geometry and Design

• Wire Thickness: The thickness of the wire used in constructing the wave spring impacts its stiffness and, consequently, the compression force it can handle.
• Radial Wall: Although it does not influence the compression force as much as wire thickness, the radial wall contributes to spring stability, which is needed to carry heavier loads.
• Number of Waves: The number of waves in the spring design influences its overall flexibility and load-carrying capacity.
• Wave Height: The height of the waves determines the amplitude of deflection, affecting the compression force. Taller waves generally result in higher forces.

3. Dimensions

• Outside and Inside Diameters: The overall size of the wave spring, including both outside and inside diameters, affects the available space for compression. Engineers must consider these dimensions in relation to the application requirements.
• Free Height: The uncompressed height of the wave spring, known as the free height, is a contributing factor to the available travel distance for compression.
• Bore and Shaft (Cavity Size): Limiting factors such as the size of an application&#;s cavity (where the spring will be placed) are also essential to consider.

Additionally, the application requirements and environmental conditions may influence the design considerations.

Contact our Engineers

Do you require assistance finding the right Wave Spring for your application? Our dedicated engineers can review the specific requirements of your application to ensure that the selected Wave Spring meets the desired force and deflection characteristics while operating within its specified limits. With your design parameters in mind, we can determine what maximum load can be achieved on our Wave Springs. Please get in touch with us today to learn more information!

If you want to learn more, please visit our website disc spring supplier.