Barrel Spring Benefits
Barrel springs are a type of compression spring used to produce linear or nonlinear force where the top and bottom outer diameter are smaller than the center outer diameter. Barrel springs can be made with many different diameters which give you numerous design options.
Barrel springs are specialty springs and more difficult to design than regular compression springs because the force they produce is not always linear. As you can see from the two pictures to the right barrel springs can have very different shapes. The force of a barrel spring stops being linear when the coils begin to telescope on the spring. You can see for the blue spring this would happen much faster than the silver spring due to the extreme differences in size and shape. If you wish to test the load on your barrel spring you will need to use a load tester.
Buckling Prevention:
The convex shape of a barrel spring helps it stay upright more easily and prevents the bending or buckling when compressed, more easily. Compression springs that are long (more than 4 times their width) will tend to buckle when compressed, this means they can bend to the sides and suffer damage by the load pressed upon them. To prevent this, compression springs with a slenderness ratio over 4 will need to be placed over a shaft or in a hole. When this is not an option, you can opt for a different shaped compression spring such as conical springs, barrel springs, or hourglass springs based on your specific space and needs.
Artistic look
The shape of a barrel spring not only prevents buckling and gives way to a lot of design options but also makes them great for certain artistic looks. A convex shape is the opposite of a concave barrel spring concave springs are hourglass shaped springs, which we will discuss in another article. Convex barrel springs look like a barrel because the end coil diameters are smaller than the diameter of the middle coils.
Solid Height Reduction
The fact that barrel springs can sometimes have telescoping coils, is a great help when there are design restrictions that cause a conflict with the solid height. Sometimes you need springs to have such a force that would require several coils, but each coil is a wire diameter and if the space for the spring is too small then when these are compressed the coils stack up on top of eachother and would not be able to compress further. In this case you can request a design where the ends of a barrel spring, which are smaller, telescope into the middle coils which are larger.
Custom Barrel Spring Quotes
As mentioned previously due to the nature of barrel springs these are specialty springs and not normally carried in stock. However, as part of Acxess Spring, we can quote and provide you with all the information you need to acquire the custom barrel spring you need, contact us at: (951) 276-2777