João CarreiroNo boring stuff. Impossible is welcome.Whipit

Mechanics study · 2024-11-15

A spring that cannot compress to the target height

English translation of the Portuguese source. Original solid-height calculation. The later redesign advice is omitted because it did not resolve the stated solid-height constraint.

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Let's assess whether the spring can compress to 10 mm, now using 1.6 mm wire instead of 1.8 mm.

Adjustment for the new wire diameter:

  1. Total height occupied by the wire (Lwire): Lwire = 14 × 1.6 = 22.4 mm

  2. Initial free space: The initial height is 40 mm, so the space available for compression (Space) is: Space = L0 - Lwire = 40 - 22.4 = 17.6 mm

  3. Required compressed height:

    • For the spring to reach a compressed height of 10 mm, the remaining free space would be: Remaining space = Lc - Lwire = 10 - 22.4 = -12.4 mm

Conclusion:

Even with 1.6 mm wire, the remaining space would still be negative when trying to compress the spring to 10 mm. With 14 coils, the coils would touch before the spring reached 10 mm.