Flat wire wave springs offer the best balance of size and spring force. Here’s what you need to know to design with these high-performance alternatives to traditional springs.
Even if you routinely use spring elements in your designs, chances are you haven’t tried wave springs yet. You’re not alone. Most engineers have plenty of experience with traditional coil and disc springs, while single- and multi-turn wave springs remain something of a mystery. Yet wave springs particularly those made from flat wire, should be better known given their compelling engineer advantages.
Chief among these advantages is an excellent force-to- work height ratio. Well-designed wave springs can produce the same or even greater forces as coil springs whose work heights are up to twice as large.
Good wave springs also produce a more consistent force across a wide range of deflections. Their deflection curves have a wider, flatter linear force region than either coil or disc springs. Wave springs transmit those spring forces only in the intended axial direction. They don’t suffer from the torsional loading and twisting that can make conventional coil springs less effective.
In addition to their favorable force characteristics, wave springs have assembly advantages. Many wave springs have the ability to self-locate in bored holes or on shafts. And a single multi-turn wave spring can frequently replace an entire stack of disc springs, eliminating an assembly step.