Category: Science

Broken or failed equipment, tools, or components can significantly affect your production line and efficiency, especially if the same issue keeps occurring. For example, if you’re constantly finding that your springs are breaking or not lasting as long as you would imagine, you may be reducing their lifecycle with your work practices without realising.

Thus, we’re taking a look into how you can maximise the lifecycle of a spring. We’ll be looking into some important factors to consider that could affect (and reduce) a spring’s lifetime, as well as the critical steps to take to ensure you’re maximising its lifecycle and getting the most out of it.

Finally, we will explore how choosing a reliable spring supplier such as European Springs is a great way to guarantee you’re getting quality springs.

Why is Maximising the Lifecycle of a Spring Important?

Ensuring that your springs, pressings, and metal components are carefully looked after is the first step in maximising their lifecycle – but why is this important? You may not believe that something as small as a single compression spring could affect productivity in your workplace, but this is true. For example, suppose a machine you’re using to manufacture products contains springs. In that case, just one breaking or failing could result in a broken and unusable machine, meaning production comes to a halt.

Additionally, if you are manufacturing products that contain springs, you need to ensure that these components have been treated correctly, so that you’re giving your customers a quality product. If your customers come back with complaints about broken parts, it could put your business and reputation in danger.

What Are Some Factors That Affect a Spring’s Lifetime?

Several factors can affect a spring’s lifetime and reduce the quality of the spring. Let’s take a look at what some of these are:

Stress. If a spring is under a lot of pressure, it is less likely to compress as far as you need it; thus, it is more likely to break or become unusable.

Environment. If your spring has not been treated correctly for its environment, it is less likely to be functional or work to its full potential. For example, consider its temperature, magnetic field, and humidity.

Friction. If a spring is touching the sides of the hole or shaft it is placed in, then the friction between its diameter and these walls could cause permanent damage to both components.

How Can I Maximise the Lifecycle of a Spring?

As reliable and reputable spring manufacturers, we know what we’re talking about when it comes to producing and maintaining quality, so let’s get into what you need to consider to maximise the lifecycle of a spring.

Lowering Stress

Lowering the stress of a spring is one of the best things you can do to ensure you’re not overloading it and applying too much pressure. This can be done by choosing a spring with a larger wire diameter or even a lower final load which allows more room for the spring and reduces high stress. Additionally, consider reducing internal pressures on the spring by ensuring it is supported correctly.

Minimising Shock Loading

Shock loading is when the weight of a load on the spring is increased or sped up suddenly, for example, when a load is dropped from a height. This can result in diminished performance and even irreversible damage to the spring – meaning the repairs and replacement could be very costly. And whilst a couple of instances of shock loading isn’t detrimental to the spring’s lifecycle, the more times it happens, the more likely it is that the irreversible damage is done.

To minimise shock loading, friction devices such as an internal damper coil or a vibration dampening device can be used. These devices absorb some shock and take the pressure off the spring.

Keeping Temperatures Low

If a spring has not been treated correctly and is exposed to heat or extreme humidity, it could be detrimental to its performance and quality. Keeping springs cool reduces the chances of spring relaxation, which occurs in high temperatures, ultimately increasing the lifecycle of the spring.

Shot Peening

Shot peening essentially creates beneficial compressive residual stress, which increases the strength of a spring. It also prevents corrosion, cracks due to wear and tear, hydrogen embrittlement, and enhances fatigue stress. The shot peening method has been proven to increase the lifecycle of springs by five to ten times.

Choose European Springs as Your Spring Supplier

As mentioned, one of the best ways to maximise the lifecycle of a spring is to purchase your bespoke springs from reputable spring manufacturers you can trust to provide quality. We have a plethora of knowledge due to our many years of working in the industry, so we are more than equipped to provide the high quality, reliable springs you’re looking for.

We hope that this blog has been helpful and you now have a better understanding of how you can maximise the lifecycle of a spring. For more information on our products, including our compression springs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, and a member of our team will be more than happy to help.

With 5G set to revolutionise the manufacturing industry, there is much speculation on the importance of manufacturers adopting the technology as early as possible. Here, we will consider the benefits that 5G is likely to bring, when it will be rolling out, and what this means for manufacturing.

What Is 5G?

5G is the latest upgrade to mobile data. If you have used 2G, 3G or 4G on your phone, then you can imagine that, but much, much faster. While the general consumer only handles 3G or 4G for sending and receiving social interactions on their mobiles, there are significant repercussions for its fine-tuning for technology, including for those working in the manufacturing sector.

Mobile data works using radio waves, and 5G data will be transmitted over a section of the available bandwidth. It will be transmitted via phone masts and similar, with greater coverage occurring initially in cities where higher numbers of people can make use of the technology. As 5G becomes more popular and more technology is created that can use it, it will spread throughout the nation until it becomes the new normal.

What Are the Benefits of 5G?

This new mobile data is substantially faster than its predecessors, offering substantially faster download and upload speeds. Not only is this a great asset for downloading movies, but it will have a significant impact on the future of important society-changing technology, such as the development of driverless cars.

For an insight into the speed of 5G, it is ten times faster than 4G. Where is would previously take fifteen minutes to download a film on 4G, it will take you three minutes on a 5G connection.

When Will 5G Be Here?

5G is already here! In the UK, EE and Vodafone were the first to introduce a 5G plan back in May 2019. Since then, all major phone service providers have rolled out 5G packages; however, for consumers to make use of their package, they must have access to a phone compatible with translating 5G waves into data.

The same goes for smart technology and the internet of things. To make use of this improved speed, your technology may need updating or replacing. As such, 5G has already arrived in our country, but it is still gaining traction with industrial, commercial, and domestic users.

How Will 5G Affect the Manufacturing Industry?

The main ways in which 5G will affect the manufacturing industry is through improving the developing technology used in industry 4.0. Through 5G, smart machines will be able to communicate more information with each other, faster. This has great implications for the predicted efficiency of this technology but will also increase the amount of data that they can process, analyse, and report on.

If you are struggling to envision what this will really mean for your factory, then try to visualise your production line as a series of solitary, hygienic machines, communicating statistics to each other and your staff. For example, if machine A is running out of material, it will communicate to machine B to order in new materials. Machine A might then calculate the speed at which it will completely run out of materials to make your product and to warn staff in your office when to expect a new material shipment.

In the case that the material shipment runs late, machine A could be programmed to request machine check-ups during its downtime, ordering in parts and relying on human engineers to repair any burgeoning problems.

One of the primary roles of your staff in this situation will be to oversee the machines’ performance, to study the data they send back, and to formulate plans which will help to improve your business’ productivity. With technology like this, your staff will likely be able to work fewer hours for better pay. The evolution of the smart factory is good news all round.

We are spring manufacturers with decades of experience. Our smart machines help us to engineer precise parts of consistent quality for other businesses and industries. We can supply springs for household appliances to aerodynamic vehicles. With the introduction of 5G technologies and industry 4.0 being the inevitable future of manufacturing, we look forward to seeing how our productivity, and ability to provide for our customers’, changes.

Contact us for more information about our current practices and what we can do for you.

The decline of our planet’s overall health and sustainability is a growing problem, and many businesses ask themselves whether they are doing enough for the environment. We think that there is always more that businesses could be doing to reduce their carbon footprint, so instead of trying to find a finish line where you stop thinking about eco-friendliness, we ask that businesses and corporations strive for constant improvement.

In this article, we are tackling the difficult question of how the manufacturing industry in 2019 has been reducing its carbon footprint to become more environmentally friendly. Perhaps you can apply some of these smart ideas to your business?

Improve Your Energy Efficiency

This is, of course, a key aim for any manufacturing business, as reducing energy costs by any means possible leads to a higher profit, but it isn’t always clear how to manage this. To begin with, you need to able to obtain a thorough understanding of your business’ current energy consumption and where that energy is source.

By carrying out an energy audit, you can identify the areas where your business could save money (and the planet’s resources). It may turn out that replacing your overhead lighting could make a bigger difference than you were originally expecting.

Flip the Green Switch

The majority of power plants worldwide still rely on fossil fuels, but where possible businesses should support clean fuels. Britain is working hard to produce more of its energy through solar, wind and geothermal, but we need businesses to support these goals if we’re going to make a difference.

Green energy is more than just sustainable; it’s sensible. Stay ahead of the competition by switching to the technology of the future now.

Careful Planning

With some careful management, businesses can make their time and resources far more efficient. This may involve upgrading your current management system to a program which embraces the internet of things style of approach, whereby huge swathes of your business are quickly monitored and analysed using improved data management technology.

If you start a long-term plan for your change to greener energy, you will be more likely to see staff acceptance of your changes, as well as efficient and worthwhile savings in your company.

Using Recycled Materials

Creating a bigger market for recycled materials will help the recycling industry to grow, so it is important to source and purchase recycled materials where possible. On a similar note, you should also aim to educate your employees on the importance of recycling by carrying out training and sticking to green policies. Ensure that as little of your waste goes to landfill as possible by sourcing companies or charities that will recycle your difficult materials when the government cannot. You may want to start your research by looking into Terracycle; a company which aspires to make the most of difficult plastics and very useful for any company which needs to dispose of a lot of plastic packaging.

Regular Maintenance

This should be standard practice anyway, but keeping your equipment well maintained can add a lot to your business. For example, if you take good care of your machinery, then you may be able to sell it on so it can be re-used once you are ready to upgrade. Good maintenance will also help to prevent the sudden breakdown of your equipment, which can slow progress and output as well as putting tension on the remaining working machinery.

Did you know that when air conditioning units get dusty, they soak up more power? You may have machinery or equipment that functions similarly, draining more power to try to overcome an obstacle and therefore becoming less efficient. This can be avoided or reduced by keeping your company clean to stay green.

Eco-friendly Building Designs

If you’re thinking of moving your business, you should think about moving to an eco-friendly location. Think of the energy costs you could cut back on by moving your staff to a workshop that receives a lot of natural light and uses a sophisticated and efficient heating system.

Education

One of the greatest steps towards an eco-friendly business is giving your staff and employees education in eco-friendliness. Once they know what to look out for and what needs to change, your staff may be able to suggest thoughtful, targeted improvements for your business. It could be little things like arranging a staff carpool or arranging for company recycling boxes, or it could be something bigger and better. Either way, getting your staff working towards a common goal will help with team bonding and could even boost morale.

You should be focusing your business towards a greener future today. We’ve covered some brief examples showcasing how you might improve your output by making it greener, with a lot of emphasis on careful planning and staff involvement across the board. As forward thinking spring manufacturers, we have had a lot of success implementing green initiatives at our premises across the UK, and we’ll be wishing you the best of luck in saving the world with us by going green.