Spring steel
Variety of steel
Spring steel is a name given to a wide range of steels used in the manufacture of different products, including swords, saw blades, springs and many more. These steels are generally low-alloy manganese, medium-carbon steel or high-carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant deflection or twisting.
01Grades
Many grades of steel can be hardened and tempered to increase elasticity and resist deformation; however, some steels are inherently more elastic than others:
| SAE grade (ASTM grade) |
Composition | Yield strength | Hardness (HRC) | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical | Maximum | ||||
| 1070 | 0.65-0.75% C, 0.60-0.90% Mn, max .050% S, max .040% P | Normally supplied annealed | 165vpn | 180vpn | CS70, CK67, C70E |
| 1074/1075 | 0.70-0.80% C, 0.50-0.80% Mn, max. 0.030% P, max. 0.035% S | 62-78 ksi (430-540 MPa) | 44-50 | 50 | Scaleless blue, or Polished Bright |
| 1080 (A228) | 0.7-1.0% C, 0.2-0.6% Mn, 0.1-0.3% Si | Piano wire, music wire, springs, clutch discs | |||
| 1095 (A684) | 0.90-1.03% C, 0.30-0.50% Mn, max. 0.030% P, max. 0.035% S | 60-75 ksi (410-520 MPa), annealed | 48-51 | 59 | Blue, or polished bright spring steel |
| 5160 (A689) | 0.55-0.65% C, 0.75-1.00% Mn, 0.70-0.90% Cr | 97 ksi (670 MPa) | 63 | Chrome-silicon spring steel; fatigue-resistant | |
| 50CrV4 (EN 10277) | 0.47-0.55% C, max. 1.10% Mn, 0.90-1.20% Cr, 0.10-0.20% V, max. 0.40% Si | 170 ksi (1,200 MPa) | Old British 735 H1steel, SAE 6150, 735A51 | ||
| 9255 | 0.50-0.60% C, 0.70-0.95% Mn, 1.80-2.20% Si | ||||
| 301 spring-tempered stainless steel |
0.08-0.15% C, max. 2.00% Mn, 16.00-18.00% Cr, 6.00-8.00% Ni | 147 ksi (1,010 MPa) | 42 | Equivalents EN 10088-2 1.4310, X10CrNi18-8 | |
02Applications
- Applications include piano wire, spring clamps, antennas, springs (e. g. vehicle coil springs or leaf springs), and s-tines.
- Spring steel is commonly used in the manufacture of swords with rounded edges for training or stage combat, as well as sharpened swords for collectors and live combat.
- Spring steel is one of the most popular materials used in the fabrication of lockpicks due to its pliability and resilience.
- Tubular spring steel is used in the landing gear of some small aircraft due to its ability to absorb the impact of landing.
- It is frequently used in the making of knives, machetes, and other edged tools.
- It is a key component in electrician's fish tape.
- It is used in binder clips.
- Used extensively in shims due to its resistance to deformation in low thicknesses.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Spring steel”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Piano strings.jpg by Matt Billings, CC BY 2.0
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