Flat springs can be made to serve a wide range of customized designs, giving you the perfect custom springs for components and applications when space is at a premium. Custom flat springs are manufactured through four slide technology, which reduces waste and saves time and money through a streamlined manufacturing process.
Because they are so customised to your application, it is best to work closely with the manufacturer to perfect the design. Our tool room and design experts will be able to make recommendations for a custom flat spring that can fit the required dimensions and carry the specific load, but use the simplest (and least costly) production process.
Manufacturing custom flat springs
The process for manufacturing a custom flat spring can be a bit different than your typical wire spring. Flat springs can either be formed and then hardened, or use pre-hardened metal that will then need to go through additional processes for stress relief. It is important to leave extra margins for any flat spring forms that have not yet been hardened, which is another reason it is crucial to work with the spring manufacturers ensure that the flat spring meets your final specifications.
If your flat spring is stamped or blanked during the manufacturing process, it may leave a burr that requires deburring using tumbling or another method later on during production. The suitable options to deburr your spring will depend in part on the thickness of the flat strip used during its manufacturing.
When designing a flat spring, it’s also important to keep any holes or nodes away from the edges of the strip, and leave sufficient space for any bends. Placing holes too close to the edges could imperil the integrity of your flat spring and weaken it.
Materials for flat springs
We can produce flat spring forms in a wide variety of materials, depending on your application. Materials for flat springs include:
- Carbon steel
- Nickel-silver
- Stainless steel
- Copper, brass, bronze, or nickel specialty alloys
Our four slide department handles flat metal strip in widths of anywhere from .015” by .25”, to .062” by 2”, and up to 17” long. With over 30 machines in the fourslide department, our tool room is able to craft bespoke flat forms in a wide variety of sizes.
Designing fourslide applications for custom spring manufacturing
As we’ve mentioned previously, it’s crucial when designing a flat spring form to work with the manufacturer and ensure that the design will meet all of your specifications. Our tool room can work with you to design a prototype for testing before a larger run. The use of four slide technology means limited runs of custom springs can be manufactured without the creation of any dies and forms, saving our customers extra money.
Depending on the process, the variation on flat springs can be up to 25%, so it is best to work with our designers to perfect the design and then test prototypes in your specific application. You can rest assured that we pride ourselves on quality, exactness, and attention to detail, and have ISO 9001 certification to prove it.
We have decades of experience as a family-owned spring manufacturer, located in Bristol, CT. You’re welcome to visit our state of the art, 40,000 square foot facility in person and view the spring manufacturing process, or upload your designs to the website here. We have clients in a wide range of sectors, making custom springs for aerospace, automotive-OEM and manufacturing customers. We ship custom springs and stamped metal pieces across the USA.
