Suspension Coil Spring

M11EKM Advanced Manufacturing Processes and Materials

Ingrid Peter Travassos 10/05/13

Figure 1- Composite coil springs (Plastics informat)

This is the main report about Suspension Coil Springs for M11EKM Advanced Manufacturing Processes and Materials assignment.

Contents
1.0 Section 3 .................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Influences of the current material in the manufacturing route.......................................... 3 1.3 Manufacturing Route .......................................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 Cold Drawing ................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.2 Heat Treatments .......................................................................................................... 4 1.3.3Cold Coiling.................................................................................................................... 4 1.3.4 Shot Peening ................................................................................................................ 6 1.3.5 Painting......................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Effects of the manufacturing route to the material microstructure................................... 6 2.0 Section 4 .................................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Advanced Material Selection .............................................................................................. 7 2.2 Advantages and Limitations of the advanced material..................................................... 11 3.0 Section 5 ................................................................................................................................ 11 3.1 Manufacturing route of the advanced material ............................................................... 11 3.1.1Production of Carbon Fiber ......................................................................................... 11 3.1.2 Manufacturing the Composite coil spring .................................................................. 12 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 14

1.0 Section 3
1.1 Introduction
Among all the existing types of springs, suspension coil springs are one example of compression springs. The main function of the suspension coil springs is to absorb shocks and bumps from the road surface. Compressive forces that are applied to the spring make the spring subjected to a shear force and torque. Previously, the selection of the material suitable for the coil spring usage was made utilizing three different performance indexes. The first of them was achieved from analysing where the maximum shear stress occurs in order to maximize this property of the material and minimize mass. Then, [

] was maximized.
( )

The second performance index was [

] and it was achieved from the equation of the

maximum stored energy of the spring. This index was produced to maximize the stored energy in order to increase the elastic region of the stress / strain curve. If the load exceeds this limit, the spring would lose its property of return to its original shape, so it is wanted increase this limit as much as is possible. Finally, the third material index is [ order to also maximize the shear modulus of the material. Utilizing those performance indices and a limit of minimum fracture toughness equal to 15 MPa m1/2, the material selection was made in the CES software (CES, 2012) in level two and level three afterwards using the best materials from level two in a tree selection. A final graph to analyse price was also made to help the selection process. After this whole study, the Low alloy steel, AISI 9255, tempered at 205C & oil quenched was chosen as the material with the best properties and price for the suspension coil spring.

] and it was reached in

1.2 Influences of the current material in the manufacturing route

The manufacturing route of coil springs involves cold drawing, heat treatments, coiling process, shot peening and painting. The coiling process can be made by cold or hot forming. (Brand, n.d) The material that was chosen to be used in the coil spring is already oil quenched and tempered at 205C. This initial condition of this steel limits the wire to be manufactured by cold coiling. In this process, the wire is first subjected to heat treatments such as tempering and quenching, and then is coiled. On the other hand, the coiling process by hot working is done heating the steel until a certain temperature to be coiled and only after that, the steel is subjected to heat treatments.

1.3 Manufacturing Route

1.3.1 Cold Drawing The cold drawing is the process used to transform a piece of metal into wire. The process consists in pulling the metal in its normal temperature (cold) into a die which have a smaller cross section area in the exit side. There is a tensile force applied to the metal on the exit side that enable the process to occur. This process might be done repeatedly until the wire achieves the wanted dimension and the length is consequently increased during the process. (Willian D Callister, 2007)

Figure 2- Cold Drawing process (Willian D Callister, 2007)

1.3.2 Heat Treatments Low alloy steels are very tough, so heat treatments are required in order to increase the strength of the material to be used for the spring. Then, the low alloy steel is subject to hardening and tempering before the coil process. First, the material will be subjected to the hardening treatment. During this treatment, the material is heat and then quenched. The quenching medium can be water, oil or air, but in this case quenched in oil medium, which is the more severe medium after water. After the hardening the material is very hard and brittle, so it is also subjected to tempering in order to increase its ductility, toughness and relieve internal stresses. Tempering occur below the eutectoid temperature. (Willian D Callister, 2007) It is possible to realize oxidation on the surface of the wire during heat treatments. It will result in an oxide layer which acts as a lubricant during the coiling process. (M., n.d) 1.3.3Cold Coiling The spring during this manufacturing route will be coiled by cold coiling process. This chosen process allows the productivity to increase because is possible to vary the parameters of the coil with ease such as the diameter and number of coil while in the hot coiling process it would need a different mandrel to each specification. (Kilen, n.d) Also, the heat treatments had already occurred before the cold forming and there is no need to repeat them after the coiling. As the heat treatments had enhanced the strength and consequently decreased the ductility of the material, this process is critical and might lead to the coil failure. Additionally, the configuration of the coil machine and the friction between the wire and the machine, which is higher during the cold process compared with the hot process, influences to increase the failure risk of the spring. (M., n.d) Because of high friction, the force needed to feed the machine and the forming force increase. (Manuel, 2011) Then, to minimise the friction influences a lubricant is used, but it has more severe requirements than other metalworking processes because this process can reach

high pressure and the lubricant have to avoid either the wire failure or tool wear. Usually, the lubricant utilized for this process is an oxide layer that is formed during the heat treatments and it has to be thick and adherent to provide the wire a good formability. The machine to make spring is shown in Figure 3. Basically, the feeding rolls feed the machine with wire at 0.67m/s and the shaped plate directs it towards the forming rolls to give the helical shape to the wire, which is aided by the guide. The cover plate guarantees the connection between the shaped plate and the wire. (M., n.d)

Figure 3- Machine to make the coil spring (M., n.d)

The configuration of the coil spring should be analysed as it might be a cause of damage or failure of the wire. According to a FEM study (M., n.d) realized in two different machine configurations, Figure 4, the configuration A, where the shaped plane and the forming roll are closer, is a better set up for the machine and minimize the levels of stress on the wire.

Figure 4- Configurations of the spring machine analysed in the FEM analyses (M., n.d)

1.3.4 Shot Peening Springs should be shot peened in order to increase their fatigue life. Fatigue failures usually occur in areas subjected to tensile stresses. In addition, the coiling process creates severe tensile stress, so it is needed a treatment to minimise those stresses of the surface and enhance springs life operation. The shot peening is a mechanical treatment that involves bombarding the surface of the component with uniform spherical particles at high velocity. This process produces residual compressive forces, which, during the spring operation, tensile stresses will have to be overcome before the tensile stress act as the resultant force. This is the cheapest and most efficient method to produce compressive residuals forces in the surface of springs and can increase their life by 10 times or more. Also it is possible to apply this treatment either to small diameter springs (0.010 in.) or to larger diameter springs (3.5 in.). (Systems, n.d) (Metal Improvement Company, 1982)

Figure 5 (Systems, n.d)

1.3.5 Painting After the shot peening, the material has now a good surface for painting. This last process is carried out to act as a protection for the material against corrosion. It is made using zinc phosphate and epoxy powder resin paint. (LESJOFORS, n.d)

1.4 Effects of the manufacturing route to the material microstructure

The microstructural changes of the low alloy steel in the current manufacturing route occur during the heat treatments of hardening and tempering. Initially, the microstructure of the low alloy steel consists of ferrite and pearlite. Because of this microstructure, low alloy steels are very tough, ductile and weak. Hence, it is needed heat treatments in order to modify the microstructure of the material, enhancing its strength. The hardening process heat the material to until the austenite temperature and then, the alloy is quenched to produce martensite. The transformation from austenite to martensite is almost instantaneous because it does not involve diffusion. In addition, the severity of the quench will determine the percentage of the transformation because, as can be seen in Figure 6, the martensite transformation starts at almost 300C, but the transformation is only completed at temperatures below approximately 200C. Also, if the alloy steel is quenched to 165C, for example, 50% of the austenite will be transformed to martensite at the same time, but once the temperature is maintained, there will not have more transformations.

Figure 6- Isothermal transformation for an alloy steel type (4340). These lines in the figure might vary with the alloy composition (Willian D Callister, 2007)

It is also possible to observe in Figure 6, that the quenching has to be fast enough to prevent carbon dissociation and consequently the formation of ferrite or cementite. As martesite is hard and brittle, the material has now these properties. Then, the material has to recover part of its ductility and it is done by tempering. Tempering involves reheat the martesitic steel to a temperature below the eutectoid and this maintained this temperature for a certain period of time. This procedure will allow carbon diffusion and the martensite will transform to tempered martensite, which has stable ferrite and cementite phases. Tempered martensite is almost as strong as martensite, but it is much more ductile and tough. (Willian D Callister, 2007) After heat treatments, the material has its final microstructure. The coiling process, shot peening and painting will change the materials properties, but there will not have change in the microstructure. In short, the coiling process will increase tensile residuals forces in the material, shot peening will introduce compressive residuals force to enhance the fatigue life of the low alloy steel, and painting will protect the material against corrosion.

2.0 Section 4
2.1 Advanced Material Selection
Nowadays, engineers want to expand as much as possible the range of conditions that a component can be utilized. Springs are not one exception. Metallic springs have some limitations in its usage such as collapse at high temperature, low resistance to corrosion and oxidation. Because of these limitations, an advanced material can be selected in order to enable springs to work properly when subjected to this environment. The advanced materials that were considered to be selected were ceramics, composites and Titanium alloys. These

groups of materials were pre-selected because of the following reasons. Ceramic springs are suitable to use at high temperatures, in some corrosive environments and in oxidising conditions. (Mr M. P.Hayes, SRAMA, Dairnler-Benz AG, & Didier, 1993) Springs made by composites can be between 40% and 70% lighter. They also are more durability and are safer. (S.p.A, 2012) Finally, titanium alloys are high performance alloys which have some attractive mechanical properties such as low density, good performance at high temperature and excellent corrosion resistance. (Company, n.d) In order to select an advanced material, the CES software was utilized and the methodology used was basically the same that was used to select the metallic material. First of all, Materials Universe level 2 was selected. Then, a tree selection was made with the materials mentioned before: Technical ceramics, Composites and Titanium and alloys. A limit selection was also made to guarantee that the fracture toughness would be higher than 15MPa.m1/2. Afterwards, the graph

versus [

( )

] was plotted in order to maximise the , where is the fatigue strength

wanted properties for coil springs. It was assumed that

7

at 10 cycles. This assumption was made because the spring is subjected to a cycled compression force. Then, the two materials in the right top of the graph were selected: Titanium alloys and Carbon fiber reinforced composites, epoxy matrix (isotropic).

Figure 7- Graph [

] versus [

( )

]. Level 2 (CES, 2012)

Then, another graph was made in order to compare the price of the candidates and make a decision as can be seen in Figure 8.

Figure 8- Graph comparing the price of the candidates Level 2 (CES, 2012)

Hence, the carbon fiber reinforced composites epoxy matrix (isotropic) was selected because they are cheaper than Titanium alloys. In order to select better the material, a similar procedure was made in level 3 of the CES, but now was made a tree selection only with Composites. The same graph versus [
( )

] was made as can be seen in Figure 9 and five materials was chosen from the top

right of the graph.

Figure 9 - Graph [

] versus [

( )

]. Level 3 (CES, 2012)

Then, a graph to compare prices was also made and the cheapest three materials were selected as is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10- Graph comparing the price of the candidates Level 3 (CES, 2012)

As was made to select the metallic material, the performance index [

] was

maximised in order to make a decision. As is shown in Figure 11, the High Strength carbon fiber / Epoxy, UD composite, 0 lamina was selected. This material is also the cheapest between the three candidates. The datasheet of this material was checked in the CES and it was confirmed that one of the typical use of this material is for springs.

Figure 11- Graph [

] versus

Level 3 (CES, 2012)

2.2 Advantages and Limitations of the advanced material

Springs made with epoxy based composite reinforced with high strength carbon fiber have several advantages. They are between 40% and 70% lighter than metallic springs, which also decrease the fuel consumption of the vehicle. Their production has fewer steps because there is no need process such as heat treatments, shot peening and painting. Because there is no heat treatments during the manufacturing route of the advanced spring can be up to 5 times less energy intensive. The production also emits 0.5g less of CO2 and springs made by epoxy based composite reinforced with high carbon fiber are 100% recyclable, conditions that made these springs more environmental friendly. The advanced spring also has longer life operation and need less maintenance, once it is high resistant to oxidation and corrosion. Additionally, it improves the comfort of passengers as it makes possible a noise, vibration and harshness reduction. (S.p.A, 2012) (Budan & Manjunatha, 2010) On the other hand, composite springs have lower stiff compared with metallic springs. This characteristic makes necessary an increase in the spring dimensions and consequently a rise its weight. Then, it is better to use this sort springs in light vehicles such as electric and hybrids because they require less of this property and an optimum design can be achieved. In addition, the manufacturing of composite coil springs is more difficult and requires a greater deal of time. However, for mass production the process can be easy and the cost reduced using a CNC tape winding machine and making the process automated. (Budan & Manjunatha, 2010) Additionally, the higher cost of composite springs compared with steel springs can be compensated by the fuel economy.

3.0 Section 5
3.1 Manufacturing route of the advanced material
Carbon fiber is produced generally by polyacrylonitrile (PAN). Coil Springs made of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy are manufactured through the filament winding method, which involves a preparation of a mold, wound the composite on the mold, compressing, cure and mold removal. The process of producing the carbon fiber as well as the process to manufacture the coil spring using the composite material will be described. 3.1.1Production of Carbon Fiber Carbon fiber has high tensile strength, low density, excellent electrical conductivity and light weight. The process to produce carbon fiber from polyacrylonitrile involves oxidation, carbonization, surface treatment and sizing as is shown in F. The PAN has to be free of contaminations because it affects directly the strength of the carbon fiber. (SIGRAFIL)

Figure 12- Steps of the Carbon fiber production (SIGRAFIL)

3.1.2 Manufacturing the Composite coil spring In order to manufacture the composite spring, first of all, a mandrel made of any metal is done based in the chosen dimensions of the spring as can be seen in Figure 13 and fixed in the lathe chuck. Then, silicone gel or another mold release agent is applied in the mold in order to make the spring removal possible after the process.

Figure 13 - Mandrel (Budan & Manjunatha, 2010)

As compression shear is the load which acts in the compression spring, the carbon fiber is cut in orientation of 45, and after that it is immersed in certain amount of epoxy resin. The composite is then coiled in the mandrel while the lathe is rotating until the mandrel achieves the required thickness for the spring. A mandrel wounded with composite material can be seen in Figure 14. The mandrel will then also be wounded by a shrink tape which applies a pressure in the material as is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 14 Mandrel wounded with the composite material (Budan & Manjunatha, 2010)

Figure 15- Madrel wounded by the shrink tape (Manjunatha & Budan, 2012)

At this stage, the mandrel, which is now wounded with material and shrink tape, is going to stay during 24 hours at atmospheric temperature in order to cure. In order to remove the spring from the mandrel, the shrink tape is taken out and the lathe is rotated in the reverse direction. Hence, it is possible to produce coil springs similar to the springs shown in Figure 16. (Manjunatha & Budan, 2012) (Budan & Manjunatha, 2010)

Figure 16 Composite Springs (Manjunatha & Budan, 2012)

Bibliography
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SIGRAFIL. (s.d.). Carbon Fibers. Fonte: http://www.sglgroup.com/cms/_common/downloads/products/productgroups/cf/carbon-fibers-for-braided-packings-andgaskets/SIGRAFIL_C_PAN_Based_Carbon_Fiber_e.pdf Systems, I. |. (n.d). SHOT PEENING For longer fatigue life. Fonte: http://www.nesco.in/documents/SHOT%20Peening%20Equipments.pdf Willian D Callister, J. (2007). Materials Science and Engineering An Introduction.