Springs for Your Vehicle – How it's Made

Springs and shock absorbers are critical components of a car's suspension system and have a considerable influence on how a vehicle drives and behaves when driven on public roads. They ensure the passengers' safety in every situation. Because of this, the quality of the coil spring used in the suspension is quite crucial.

00:00 Suspension springs for cars How it's Made

00:29 Tevema Automotive
To gain a better understanding of how these components are created, we will be touring the production facility of Tevema Automotive in Kudowa Zdrój. In every passenger vehicle, there are around one hundred springs in total.

00:51 The manufacturing process of suspension springs.
The design department is the first stop in the manufacturing process of suspension springs. Designers have a responsibility to take into account every aspect of the spring's functionality, paying particular attention to how the spring will be utilized and what other components it will be compatible with.

In the second step of the process, a prototype is created, and its characteristics are analyzed in the laboratory.

01:32 The Manager of Operations.
It is necessary for the raw material that will be used to create springs to possess particular qualities.

Chromium-silicon wire, which has higher tensile strength, is used in the manufacture of suspension springs. This is around two thousand megapascals.

The production process begins with the coiling of the spring. The operator of the machine decides the size, form, and other characteristics of the spring in accordance with the design. After being unwound from the reel, the wire is then straightened. After that, the shaping rollers give the spring its shape. The importance of positioning the machine correctly cannot be overstated. A spring can be made with radically different characteristics by simply repositioning the forming tools by a small amount.

The operator will then examine the length, the diameter, and the pitch, which refers to the distance between each individual coil. The winding process creates internal tensions in the structure of the wire, and it is imperative that these stresses be removed. The application of heat brings about this result. The temperature in the springs is approximately 400 degrees Celsius. They are able to retain their springiness as a result of the heat treatment process.

Additional grinding is done to the springs that are used, for example, in large cars or valves, with specialized stones, and the grinding is done by gradually lowering the stones until the spring achieves the desired length.

03:15 The coiling process.
It can cause microscopic cracks on the wire's surface in addition to the internal tensions that are already there. The microcracks are smoothed out by a technique called shot peening, which involves rapidly striking the surface of the wire with small cast iron balls of varying sizes. After going through the process of shot peening, the spring will be completely smooth, and its lifespan will improve by thirty percent.

03:41 Compressing the springs for vehicles
The following process is called presetting, and it consists of compressing the spring in order to consolidate its length and flexibility. The spring can then be painted once the presetting has been completed. Individual springs are selected at random from the larger production batch in order to facilitate the quality control department's inspection process. In addition to tests conducted in the laboratory, a fatigue test is also performed. During this test, the longevity of the object is evaluated.

During testing, it is an indication that the spring will function correctly if it is able to resist 500,000 cycles.

04:22 The quality test of springs for automotive niche.
The springs are then given a serial number and packed once they have passed the quality test with flying colors. They are going to be handed out to manufacturers by the automotive sector and by businesses that sell replacement parts.

In Kudowa Zdroj, a wide variety of springs are manufactured, and these springs have potential applications in virtually every sphere of human endeavor.
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