Optimum Design of Helical Compression Springs

Abstract

The most efficient spring, for a given application, is one that safely stores the required amount of energy and uses the least possible material. Springs designed to this premise are said to have minimum weight. Several analytical procedures, based on prescribed initial assumptions, are already available to the designer which permit the calculation of certain minimum-weight springs. In some instances the assumptions are not entirely relevant to the problem at hand; in which case, a true minimum spring is not obtained. This paper presents a solution to minimum-weight springs based on initial assumptions which can be more universally applied. Also, a solution is given to the ultimate condition where no design variables (outside diameter, wire diameter, spring index, load rate, solid height, or number of coils) are chosen arbitrarily.