Ordering Disc Springs

We deal with design engineers, engineering contractors, maintenance staff as well as procurement office staff. All have different levels of understanding and access to information and we work appropriately with whoever contacts us. There are times where people have very specific and detailed requirements, and sometimes less so. Either way, we will take you through all the key questions and considerations and alternatives.

Critical Engineering Applications

In those instances where the costs of failure are high, we will work with you confirming all design specifications and risk mitigation actions, and in those instances where clients know exactly what they want we make the interaction simple and easy. We will not patronise you.

We support multi-million dollar engineering projects, where demanding performance characteristics are required, with disc springs in extreme stack configurations, which must absolutely meet design specifications. In these instances we request and will verify:

Bespoke vs. DIN-EN 16983 Disc Springs

The DIN 2092 (for Calculations) and the DIN 2093 (Dimensions and Quality Specifications) standards, recently were replaced by the DIN EN 16983 and DIN EN 16984 updates. These have been interpreted to draw a boundary on the dimensions that are allowed as part of the standard and that which strictly defines what a DIN-EN 16983 (ex DIN 2093) disc spring is. You'll be surprised at how many disc springs technically fall outside the DIN standard.
As with DIN2093, DIN EN 16983 divides disc springs into groups that are defined by the thickness of a single disc - (t) and these groups are then comprised of 3 dimensional series, which are governed by the h0/t ratio (cone height to material thickness) and the ratio of the Outer Diameter De to material thickness, t.
These constraints that define the narrow range of acceptable dimensions, have never been qualified, but if one devotes some time to the various calculations that the standard provides, one can see that for the range of dimensions which fall within the standard, that the real-life output as measured against the theory, is consistent, reliable and predictable. But as we move out to more extreme dimensions, they do begin to be less predictive but oddly enough often have far superior fatigue life....hmm one for the conspiracy theorists perhaps?
The DIN classification of Dimensional Series limits us to a range of disc spring dimensions, with 45 > De/t > 15 and 1.3 > h0/t > 0.4. and we do abide by these standards.

Thicker is seldom better

There is a misconception that if you need a disc spring to carry greater load, then we should just make the material thicker. We get these requests often. The problem with making disc springs thicker is that the induced stresses become greater than the underying yirld strength of the base material, and they just won't last. Or their operational range must be reduced. We aren't trying to sell more disc springs when we suggest that thinner disc springs in parallel are better, we are advising this so that your disc springs last! This is why whenever a "thicker" disc spring is requested, we will supply all the stress calculations over the full travel of the disc spring.

We have constructed our website menu flow to follow the basic structure of how we describe what we do.

We support our clients across the generic value chain with respect to all the products we manufacture. Most of these things we do, except for the actual manufacturing of the product are Services that we provide, either formally at the request of our clients or informally, and without being prompted to do so, as part of our internal Quality or Risk Assessment processes.

Consult us before you finalise your design

Due to the relatively simple geometrical shape the complexity of disc springs in production and application is very often underrated. There are possibilities for mistakes in outlining a disc spring solution, which inevitably lead to sub-optimal operational life and failure. Then it is very difficult to find better substitutes, because most of the times the installation space is fixed.

We will help you as part of our service, we are happy to do so at our expense - it causes much less grief in the long run, and we want you to be supplied with disc springs that perform as you wish your application should.

Spring Force

The calculation of the force of a disc spring is based on a model by Almen and Laszlo. Its accuracy in the expected mid-range of the characteristic load curve of the spring is very good. Yet, approximation errors do significantly change calculations as disc springs get larger. We discuss this in detail in our design page.

Static Loading

In the design of a new disc spring a certain stress level should not be surpassed for static loading. The maximum allowable limit is given by the reference stress σom. Its value should not exceed the value of the tensile strength Rm of the material to avoid plastic deformations of the spring, i.e. setting losses.

Dynamic Loading

Most of the disc springs only can bear a limited dynamic load. The life time depends on the load span as well as on the load level. The number of cycles, which is to be expected under a certain load condition, can be estimated from fatigue diagrams. It is also necessary to reload disc springs in a dynamic application to at least 15% to 20% of their maximum deflection, to avoid compression-tension alternating stresses in the beginning of the deflection range of the spring.

Stacking

Disc springs can be stacked “face to face” (series arrangement,), which means their deflections add up, or they can be stacked in the same sense (parallel arrangement), then their forces add up. The latter induces increased friction and a stronger hysteresis effect. Thus the force in loading direction is higher and in unloading direction lower than the calculated force. Applying suitable lubrication (MoS2 containing grease) can reduce the hysteresis effect.

When describing a stack configuration, we generally refer to the number of packets it contains, and then the configuration of the actual packet. A packet is really the Highest Common Factor of disc spring configuartion that you can repeat to complete the stack.

The various (serial vs parallel) possibilities of stacking disc springs can be combined in a stack to generate a non-linear progressive or regressive characteristic load curve. For example, we can create one which is initially linear, ie the relationship between load/force is directly proportional to travel/compression, but then later changes to one where the load plateaus off to a designated value, despite the amount of travel It is necessary to pay attention to the weaker parts in a combined stacking though, because these normally are pressed flat quite fast, which is not allowed in dynamic loading.

Load Characteristic Curves

The load/deflection curve of a single Disc Spring is not linear. Its shape depends on the ratio of cone height (ho) to the thickness (t) (ho/t). If the ratio is small, 0.4 (DIN Series A), the characteristic is virtually a straight line. The load deflection becomes increasingly curved as the ratio ho/t increases

Up to a ratio of 1.5, Disc Springs may safely be taken to the flat position. At a ratio of 1.5 the curve is flat for a considerable range of deflection. This is a useful consideration for wear compensation. Above 1.5 the Disc Spring exhibits increasingly regressive characteristics and is capable of push-through and therefore needs to be fully supported

Guide

The surface of guide elements is dynamic disc spring applications always has to be harder than the disc springs themselves. A minimum of 55 HRC is advisable, otherwise the surfaces can be damaged. This again causes uneven movement during the deflection of the spring. The characteristics will be changed and even fatigue cracks can occur. Wrong guide clearance also can change the dynamics of loading in a detrimental way.

Stack Length

Friction and other influences make a spring stack move unevenly. It deflects more on the side of the loading. This effect usually can be neglected for a “normal” spring stack, but not for long stacks. Therefore the length of a spring stack should not exceed three times the value of the outer diameter. If it is longer, the stack can be stabilised by dividing it with guide washers, which as a rule of thumb should have a thickness of at least one and a half times the guide diameter. No individual stack should ever contain more than 14 packets, and then overall height of the stack should never exceed 3 times the outer diameter of the disc spring.

Material

The best material for disc springs is standard spring steel. It is always used as long as there are no particular circumstances, which may necessitate a special material. In general special materials have a lower tensile strength and most of the times a different Young’s modulus compared to the standard spring steels. Therefore springs out of these materials generally cannot be designed with the same free height, which means that the spring forces are lower.

Temperature

The different materials have different temperature ranges. Too high temperatures may have a tempering offset, which again results in a loss of force and, in extreme cases, in plastic deformation (setting losses).

Corrosion

Disc springs can be protected against corrosion either by suitable coatings or by using corrosion resistant materials. Such materials are only available in a limited variety of thicknesses. Also almost all high alloy steels may show stress corrosion cracking at high working stresses.

Hydrogen Embrittlement

During the application of certain chemical or electrochemical processes (such as galvanic coating) hydrogen can get in to the material and can cause delayed brittle fractures. This cannot be avoided entirely by thermal treatment. Thus processes, which do not bear this risk, are to be preferred.