What you need to know about spring quality

Chris Petts, the Managing Director of Lee Spring, writes: "It is important to select the right type of spring to suit application-specific requirements, such as a heavy-duty die spring for heavy load applications, or a compact wave spring for an application where space is critical. But the most important thing to consider is the quality of the spring and the materials used to produce it."

While it is working, a spring may seem like a minor component within the larger product but, if spring failure occurs, there could be major consequences. Spring failure in the pedal of a moving car, for example, or in medical apparatus that is supporting a patient, could become life-threatening.

Premature spring failure could be caused by a number of things including the use of poor quality materials to manufacture the spring, poor design or manufacturing technique, or by corrosion of materials, perhaps if the wrong materials or low-quality materials have been used.

To ensure maximum performance for customers, Lee Spring - which is an ISO 9001 Registered Company - only supplies springs and fasteners manufactured with ISO quality standard spring materials, and all design and manufacturing tolerances adhere to British and International standards. The company has over 90 years of experience in designing, manufacturing and supplying spring products.

Chris Petts states: "We supply springs and fasteners to the medical, aerospace and automotive sectors, which demand high quality and durability. These sectors require various equipment that must all meet legal quality standards in order to minimise risks to safety and health, and we apply these standards to all our products."

Lee Spring products are all manufactured to meet military, aerospace and/or equivalent British and DIN Standards. Chris Petts adds: "For our customers' peace of mind, batch traceability is standard practice for all orders, no matter what the quantity, from raw material receipt right through to finished product despatch. This visibility to our customers demonstrates our quality standards."

Lee Spring's range of over 19,000 stock springs have been carefully selected to reflect the most commonly used sizes, but the company also offers a world-class custom design and manufacturing service for specialist spring applications.

From repairs to development, Lee Spring offers a comprehensive spring service, including small prototype batches or large production quantities. Whether it is 10 or 10million springs, each order receives the same professional, quality service.

For more information, or to order a catalogue please visit www.leespring.co.uk or call +44 (0)118 978 1800.