Spiral Springs:

• Spiral springs consist of coiled wire, typically arranged in either a flat spiral or a helix shape.
• These springs are commonly used for energy storage.
• When compressed or stretched from their rest position, they exert an opposing force approximately proportional to the change in length.
• Imagine a tightly wound spring, like a coiled watch spring or a Slinky toy. When you compress it, it stores energy, and when released, it unwinds and releases that stored energy at a constant rate.
• Spiral springs are made by joining rectangular metal strips into plane spirals.
• They find applications in various fields, including mechanical watches, clipboards, levers, and switches.

• Helical Springs:

  • Helical springs inherit their name from their helix structure—a corkscrew shape with tangent lines and a constant angle to a fixed axis.
  • The spiral-wound wire of a helical spring has a constant coil diameter and a uniform pitch.
  • Think of a coiled mattress spring or a bouncy Slinky toy. These are examples of helical springs.
  • Helical springs operate according to Hooke’s Law, which relates the force applied to the spring to its displacement.
  • The mathematical formula for Hooke’s Law is:
    (F = -kX)
    • (F) represents the force applied to the spring.
    • (X) denotes the displacement of the spring (a negative value indicates that the force of restoration acts in the opposite direction).
    • (k) is the spring constant, which varies depending on the spring type.