Spring Design Tips and Tricks

Items You May Have Missed in ASD7

Spring Design Tips and Tricks

By Gary Van Buren

There are a few items that you may have missed within the Advanced Spring Design (ASD) 7 software. Universal Technical Systems (UTS), the company that developed the software for SMI, continually updates and improves the software. I am personally grateful that Todd Piefer (ASD7 designer) of UTS works with the SMI technical committee, because he brings a wealth of knowledge and common sense to our group and helps us unlock the full potential of the program.

The first item that you might not be aware of is the “Encyclopedia of Spring Design.” This is loaded into the software and updated as changes are made. The printed version of this publication that you may have on your desk is only updated when it’s republished.

With your software open to a spring design, click on a field. In this case, I have clicked on the index field. Once you’ve done this, go to the top of your screen and click on the question mark (?). This will open the Encyclopedia and take you to the section you’ve highlighted.

One other ASD7 software feature that many people don’t use is the incremental solver. There are many times when you are trying to dial in a design by changing the OD or coil count to help attain a certain rate. This incremental solver feature lets you change the property of a field by a small incremental percentage to come up with the right number.

In my compression spring example, I have placed my cursor in the coil OD field and updated the percentage change to 1%. The default is 5%. When you are fine tuning this, you may want to change it to something even smaller like 0.5%. You may also decide to change the wire size or coil count to achieve your desired results. Try it out and let me know what you think. n

Gary Van Buren is the technical advisor for SMI. He is available to assist members with design and problem-solving issues, including spring design and technical consultation. In addition, he teaches SMI’s spring design training courses. Van Buren is an engineering manager with more than 25 years of experience in the spring industry. He has extensive experience in compression, extension and torsion spring design, as well as customer service. Van Buren can be reached at gvanburen2@gmail.com or 440-206-6129.