Spring factory De Spiraal is, like the name already indicates, a factory. However, we have transcended the idea of just being a production company that solely manufactures springs. Due to our years of experience with producing springs we of course know a lot about the techniques concerning springs and its manufacturing process. We gladly provide you of this knowledge in order for you to gain the best solution for your situation.
Technical calculations
The vast majority of the products leaving De Spiraal find their application within a technical solution. This solution is mostly the resilient action of the product. Since this resilient action is based on physicist theories, we are able to calculate, in advance of the production of this spring, whether the intended spring is appropriate for the application. Spring factory De Spiraal has the availability over comprehensive calculation methodologies which are used to carry out a technical calculation for the most common types of springs.
The calculation methods used by spring factory De Spiraal are published under the auspices of “The institute of Spring Technology”. The methodologies are therefore guaranteed of up-to-date knowledge, and they are validated by an accredited organization.
Material knowledge
Each application has its own specific characteristics. It is therefore, for each specific situation of major importance that we take a good look at the desired materials.
The most processed materials within De Spiraal are regular 1.0304 (non processed steel), 1.4301 (stainless steel) and the spring steel quality of both; 1.1200 and 1.4310.
Next to that, there are many more opportunities with regard to the materials. It is in our opinion impossible to list hem all in this article, mainly because the applications of a material are a specific affair. Our employees have extensive technical knowledge of materials at their disposal. There is besides, a lot of experience concerning the usage of diverse materials for different applications within our organisation. We therefore recommend to contact us when specific materials or specific applications are desired. We can then propose a customized solution.
To give you any idea of the material (groups) that we process a lot, a small list of material (groups) is represented below;
Non processed types of steel; St.37, St.53, S235JR, S355J2C, 1.0038, 1.0304, …
Non processed types of spring steel; Class A, Class C, Class D, 1.0500, 1.1200, …
Non processed types of steel with surface layers as chromed or galvanized in advance, bezinal, …
Types of stainless steel; AISI301, AISI302, AISI304, AISI316, AISI316L, AISI316Ti, (super)duplex, …
Variants of Chrome Silicon, Chrome -Vanadium, Copper alloys such as brass, (phosphor) bronze and Berillium copper, Titanium, Hastelloy, Incoloy, Elgiloy, Inconel, Monel, Nimonic and other Chromium-Nickel alloys
From our worldwide network of suppliers, we are able to access the most exotic materials. We nevertheless gladly exchange, before you have made a choice, thoughts with you, because besides the technical choice, commercial aspects are relevant as well. The duration of delivery and a minimum of order quantities could for example have a significant influence on special alloys.
Material certificates are delivered together with all the types of materials. Our intern registration system even enables us to deduce which material certificate belongs to your product. When desired, we could make a copy of the material certificates and deliver it (standard) together with the products.
It is of course possible that you are put up with an existing (possible defective) product of which you do not know from which material it is made. In such cases we have the possibility to make an analysis of the material of the product. On the basis of this we can determine which basic material is required for a replacing product.
In case you would like to know more about the materials we use, or about the above mentioned services, please contact our sales team.
3D designs
Within a technical working environment, drawings are possibly the most important means of communication. For this reason, drawings are made during the entire day at De Spiraal. This could concern drawings of certain products, however as well drawings for supportive implementation such as, laser cutting contours, jigs, stamps, tools, etc. This process takes place with the aid of probably the most advanced existing ‘’3D modelling software’’, SolidWorks’16 of Dassault Systems.
In line with advanced modelling software, we use a large format printer (plotter) to print drawings on a scale of 1:1. This provides us, especially for 3-dimensional shaped products which consist of tricky edges, of a first effective control opportunity whereby the risk on errors is reduced considerably.
Since we use the newest software versions we are of course also capable of using the 3D models, which you already have made of the products, for both, making an order or possibly as a basis for the production of your products. You then don’t have to generate the drawings anymore yourself, which means you also don’t have to think about all the parameters needed to be projected on the drawing. This could actually be a time-consuming activity, since different stakeholders require different information. It is of course also possible that you are not working with SolidWorks but with other 3D modeling software such as Inventor. That’s not a problem since the international accepted exchange format ‘’STEP-file’’ models can be shared always, even when we talk about different modeling softwares.
Prototyping and product optimization
Springs were, are and will always be products which are hard to judge without having them actually in your hands. We obviously make 3D drawings in order to visualise the spring, we of course make calculations in order to model the mechanical features of the spring, but the features of the spring are the cause of the extreme difficulty of estimating the value from paper or a screen.
How often has it been the case that – despite the load of drawing and calculation work – a springs doesn’t work the way it should. And, upon inspection, it appears that the spring conforms the predetermined specifications. How can this be prevented in the future?
Spring factory De Spiraal is equipped in a way to receive your ‘’boffin colleagues’’ on spot, at the machine, in order to finetune your spring design. When the springs have been calculated and when they have been put on the drawing, you can, together with the machine-operator of De Spiraal, adjust the detail parameters accurately until you have the exact same products as if you were looking for.
Have you also become interested in the possibilities concerning the prototyping and product optimization? Then please contact our sales department.
Tool shop
De Spiraal possesses their own tool shop already for a long period of time. The previous years, major investments have been made with regard to the tool shop. Due to the availability of our own milling and lathes and an own wire EDM we are able to manufacture the required tools and stamps ourselves. Hereby, we can ensure short durations of delivery and we are able to respond quickly to a stagnated production as a consequence of a broken or worn tooling. The tool shop produces solely for internal customers which causes the availability to be very high and the lead time to be short.