Springs compress and decompress when a force is applied and have a spring force caused by the material and shape. They can absorb energy, provide feedback, and follow Hooke’s law. Microscopic springs have been developed for MEMS.
A spring is an object which upon the application of a force in a given direction compresses and then, after the force is removed, either decompresses or returns to its original size. Spring force is the description of the force that causes the spring to bounce. It is a feature of the material at the molecular level and its three-dimensional shape at the macro level. Hooke’s law is the usual formula for calculating this force.
A constant pressure on a surface may be all that is required of a spring in a mechanism. The springs in a car’s shock absorption system are not calibrated to measure deflection but to absorb the energy transmitted from the wheels to the car. In many small appliances or electrical devices, the switches consist in part of a piece of metal stripping that acts as a spring. The strip changes shape when pressure is applied, which then connects a new set of electrical contacts.
In other applications, springs provide proportional quantitative feedback to the user. When you measure a weight, the force of the spring is compressed by a distance proportional to the force of gravity on the weight. The more linear response is observed, the better a given material and configuration will suffice in a metrology application. Materials stretched beyond their elastic limit will no longer respond like a spring.
Springs are not considered a simple machine type, as they do not transfer force over distance. They need to deflect or stretch a distance to absorb the energy applied to the spring. Most of the energy is released in the original incoming direction. The spring force is always applied to the angle of attack. Some of the energy is lost as heat.
Hooke’s law states that force equals the negative of the spring constant times the distance. As long as a spring operates within its elastic limits and responds proportionally to the applied force, the spring is a Hookes law spring and its material is considered to be such. These materials are said to have a linear elastic property and will have a constant elastic characteristic. The negative sign is the result of the force resulting from the opposite direction of the incident force.
In the new field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also called micromachines, microscopic springs have been developed. These nanoscale springs are made from etched films similar to integrated circuit (IC) packages. The researchers demonstrated Hooke’s behavior and used them as tiny rulers or probes to detect surface variations.
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