Extension vs Compression Springs: What’s the Difference?
Consisting of a coiled piece of metal, springs are used in many industrial and consumer applications. They are designed to stretch while storing mechanical energy. When a spring is stretched, it will uncoil. Even when just partially uncoiled, a spring will store this mechanical energy. There are many different types of springs, however, two of the most common being compression and extension. While they both store mechanical energy, they differ in several ways.
What Is an Extension Spring?
Also known as a tension spring, an extension spring is intended to operate under a load that creates tension. As shown in the adjacent image, they typically feature a hook or loop on each end. To use an extension spring, you must attach the ends to two components. If the components try to pull apart from each other, the extension spring will force them back together.
Extension springs receive their namesake from their ability to extend. When connected to two components that try and pull away from each other, an extension spring will become longer. Extension springs are available in different sizes and materials, but they are all designed to extend under a load. This extension creates tension that forces the two connected objects back together.
What Is a Compression Spring?
A compression spring is a type of spring that compresses under a load. Like extension springs, they consist of a coiled piece of metal. If you compare an extension spring to a compression spring, though, you’ll notice that the latter type has a wider and broader coil than its counterpart. Extension springs consist of a narrow piece of coiled metal, whereas extension coils consist of a broader piece of coiled metal.
Compression springs differ from extension springs in regards to how they work. While extension springs become longer under a load, compression springs become shorter.
Compression springs are designed for use in applications where two components try to push towards each other. To prevent the components from making contact, a compression spring may be used. The compression spring is placed between the two components where it compresses. As the two components try to push towards each other, the compression spring will compress. In turn, it will store mechanical energy that subsequently pushes the components back out.
Extension springs and compression springs aren’t the same. Extension springs are intended for use when two components try and pull away from each other. In comparison, compression springs are intended for use when two components try and push towards each other.
Compression Spring Vs Tension Spring
There are different types of springs. Compression springs, torsion springs, spiral springs, and tension springs are the most common springs to be named. Two of the most common types are compression and tension springs. Both are an integral part of different industries like automobiles, smartphones, electrical appliances, etc. These springs lie under the category of helical coiled springs. However, there are significant differences between both that distinguish them.
Based on these differences, both springs offer different features with different functionalities. In short, tension springs are closely connected to multiple components. On the other hand, compression springs maintain a significant distance between them. This article will present a thorough comparison between compressions springs and tension springs.
Tension Springs
Tension springs are a type of helical coiled springs. These are closely-wounded coil springs to keep the components hooked together. They enable the tension load to stretch. This stretch then keeps the objects hooked together by exerting a force between them.
Products like levers, catches, and brakes are prominent examples of the use of tension springs. Industries such as automobiles and heavy industries use tension springs for different purposes. Moreover, tension springs are also used in garage doors for counterbalancing, in trampolines for storing energy that pulls back the surface to its original position, and in the farming industry.
Compression Springs
In contrast to tension springs, compression springs work oppositely to keep the components away from each other. Compression springs become shorter in length when the load is applied. However, it repels back against the applied force and gets back to its original position as soon as possible. This working mechanism is utilized in different domains to avoid the collision of components.
Different industries and domains make huge use of compression springs. Products and parts like actuators, suspensions, dampers, and valves are incomplete without compression springs. Apart from that, compression springs are available in every household. Compression springs are present in pens, smartphones, clocks, door handles, lawnmowers, electrical appliances, etc. One of the main reasons for compression springs’ heavy utilization is the availability of different shapes and designs. Compression springs are available in cylindrical, conical, reduced ends, and hourglass shapes to work efficiently according to the requirement.
Which material is used in the manufacturing of compression and tension springs?
Although the functionality of both springs is opposite to each other, both can still be manufactured with the same material. However, there are different materials for manufacturing compression and tension springs.
This variety is available because there are different factors involved in it such as temperature, probability of rust, and the level of stress. Due to these factors, both springs use stainless steel, cold drawn wire, titanium alloys, bainite hardened strip, hardenable spring steel, Cold drawn and cold rolled low-alloy steel, and copper alloys for manufacturing.
Both these springs are contradictory to each other in terms of functionalities, yet they offer great services in different domains.
Compression vs Extension Springs
When it comes to understanding the difference between compression vs extension springs, look no further than the springs themselves. True, compression and extension springs have certain shared characteristics. For starters, both are easily recognizable by their familiar tightly wound, helical coils. Each is commonly made of spring steel or another non-ferrous metal. When a force is applied to either, each spring will return to its exact original position when that force is removed. This is due to the elastic properties each spring holds, which is a defining characteristic of nearly every spring design.
Beyond these few shared traits, any similarity in design and function between the two springs ends there. In fact, in terms of spring design and function, they are complete opposites and that is why understanding their differences is important—selecting the right spring is essential to meet specific design requirements for any given application.
Compression Springs
As the name suggests, compression springs provide resistance and absorb force when a load is applied and the spring is compressed. When loaded, the coils of the spring become shorter, holding and storing mechanical energy efficiently until the force is removed, whereupon the stored energy is released and the spring returns to its original position.
In fact, a characteristic difference between a compression spring and an extension spring is the visible space between the coils of the latter. In an unloaded state, the spaces between a compression spring’s coil are visible and open. In contrast, an extension spring’s coils are closed and touch each other when unloaded. When a compression spring is loaded the spaces between the coils will compress but never touch, which creates the necessary energy to carry the load. If the coils are in contact with each other then the load is either too heavy, meaning there is a design flaw or, the spring has reached the end of its service life.
The design configurations, the shapes and sizes of compression springs, vary in relation to the application requirements. Straight, conical, convex (barrel-shaped) or concave (hourglass-shaped) are typical compression spring designs. Depending on the application, compression springs can be used as shock absorbers, vibration dampers, as pure energy accumulators, or force generators. They are designed for use in a diverse number of product applications—automobile suspensions, medical equipment and devices such as pacemakers, in hydraulic systems, mattresses and couches, watches, pens, lawn and garden tools and equipment, firearms, industrial machinery and tooling, toys, electronic devices, and much more.
Extension Springs
As the opposite of a compression spring, an extension spring is designed to resist a pulling force. Its coil is tightly wound together to create initial tension in the coils that store and absorb energy that resists force when it is applied. Thus, they are sometimes referred to as tension springs because energy is created through the tension caused by the tightly wound coils. That tension provides the necessary resistance to counter any pulling force while simultaneously creating the required energy to carry the load when the spring is being pulled or stretched. Extension springs are used for storing potential energy or to create resistance against a directional force when pulled or stretched.
An extension spring is configured with loops or hooks at each end that are then attached to two opposite components. The purpose here is to provide an extended force when the spring is pulled apart from its original position. When a pulling force is applied to stretch the components apart, the tensile strength of this spring brings them back to its original point.
The initial tension preloaded into the coils is an important design function that can be calculated to meet specific load requirements, such as required for aircraft landing gears or stretchers, surgical lights, instruments and other in medical equipment and devices. Extension springs hold the drum of washing machines in place. They are essential components in farm machines and equipment as large as combine harvesters, plows and the tractors that pull them. Extension springs are also used to open and close a car’s glove box and the hoods of heavy trucks. They are integral component parts for baby carriages, toys, trampolines, vice grips, electronic devices, fence posts, garage doors and much more.
Importance of Selecting the Right Spring
It may be argued that there is no other mechanical component more indispensable than the spring. Nonetheless, selecting the right spring is necessary to ensure that the design requirements for applications are met. Compression and extension springs are two common spring designs that serve different application requirements in products used in numerous industries—manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, durable goods, construction, medical, petrochemical, and aeronautical to name a few.
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