Products > Springs
Small Coil Springs Assortment: Overview, Types & Applications
Coil springs, defined by their distinctive coiled wire configuration, are the most common springs on the market. They represent a broad spring class encompassing three main spring subtypes, which are differentiated by the direction of the load and displacement they are designed to accommodate.
Small coil springs are a subset of coil springs with compact dimensions engineered to tight tolerances. In simple terms, they are much smaller than a standard coil spring.
While "small" terminology is not precise, small springs generally fit within a certain wire and outer diameter specification. Small coil springs are available in the three primary helical coil spring subtypes: tension, compression (including conical, tapered, and barrel springs), or torsion. All small coil springs are designed and manufactured to precise dimensional tolerances to function reliably within small assemblies.
Your design application determines the loads and displacement your small spring must accommodate and the environmental resistance your spring requires. Century Spring is proud to offer thousands of stock small coil springs and custom small spring coil spring configurations in a wide selection of materials and sizes.
Explore Our Small Coil Springs Range
The following chart helps you navigate typical stock small coil spring sizes as denoted by the spring type and the loads they are designed to resist. The table uses the Outer Diameter (OD) and the Wire Diameter (WD) to differentiate the sizes.
Spring Type | Dim. | Micro Springs | Small Springs |
| Extension Springs | OD | 0.063” to 0.100” | 0.101” to 0.500” |
| WD | 0.004” to 0.012” | 0.013” to 0.035” | |
| Torsion Springs | OD | 0.078” to 0.150” | 0.151” to 0.350” |
| WD | 0.012” to 0.015” | 0.016” to 0.035” | |
| Compression Springs | OD | 0.036” to 0.100” | 0.101” to 0.500” |
| WD | 0.004” to 0.012” | 0.013” to 0.035” |
We offer thousands of small coil springs in stock for sale, which are available to ship today. You can browse by diameter, spring rate, material, and more.
Download the spring CAD before purchasing to see how your spring will fit your application. Place your order now to take advantage of same-day shipping.
Browse our full selection of small springs by spring type, filtering by wire size and outer diameter.
Shop Extension SpringsShop Compression SpringsShop Torsion Springs
Custom Small Coil Springs
We offer custom small coil spring solutions with many configurable options, such as high-strength materials or custom end types if you cannot find the small coil spring you need in our expansive catalog.
We bring decades of design and manufacturing expertise to your custom projects. We have thousands of small coil spring customization options ready to engineer into your spring to fit the most demanding applications and industries.
Custom Small Coil Spring Manufacturing Capabilities
We proudly offer state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment to deliver high volumes of custom small springs. Our cutting-edge CNC compression self-monitoring and coiling machinery can manufacture custom sizes and styles to fit any design envelope. Our precision manufacturing equipment and expert manufacturing engineers can manufacture custom wire springs with wire diameters as small as 0.005” thick.
We provide complete prototyping and tooling assistance services and are ready to partner with you at any stage of development, from the initial design concept to final product procurement.
Don’t waste another minute; contact our experts, and we will show you how we deliver small springs engineered for high performance in high-precision applications for use in the most demanding environments.
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Small Coil Spring Information & Resources
Small Coil Spring Types
Small coil springs are excellent for applications with limited design space envelopes that require precision linear displacement control and performance. They are also integrated into machine components across nearly every industry, including aerospace, medical, automotive, and consumer products.
For example, small coil springs are used in many aerospace assemblies, including safety-critical electronic buttons and switches. Small compression springs fabricated from medical-grade stainless steel are used in medical devices such as insulin pumps and inhalers.
Century Spring is your trusted partner in delivering reliable stock and custom small springs for applications in the following industries.
How to Select a Small Coil Spring
Small coil springs are defined by the same geometric properties as helical coil springs, such as Wire Diameter, Outer diameter (OD), and Spring Rate.
After determining the working load your small spring must withstand, you can shop for small springs by Spring Rate. Use this value to calculate the spring displacement in your application, which will help you determine how the spring will operate under load in your compact machine design. The critical properties will allow you to determine the fit and function of your small spring in your application.
However, you may need to measure other critical dimensions specific to certain types of small coil springs. For example, small extension springs dimensions such as the End Type and Length Inside Hooks are important. In contrast, small torsion coil springs are defined by the Angle between the Legs and the Leg Length. Finally, geometry such as Spring Pitch and Solid Spring Length are critical compression coil spring properties.
We created three standalone spring selection guides with detailed design and selection information on our stock compression, extension, and torsion springs to help you navigate these spring-specific geometries and further guide your small spring selection process.
These guides feature all the critical design and sizing information you need to select a small coil spring.
How to Measure a Small Coil Spring
Measure the key dimensions of your coil spring using calipers and follow the instructions below.
- Outer Diameter (OD)
Hold the spring on the outer surfaces and place your calipers on the outside edges of the coils to measure the coil spring’s OD. - Inner Diameter (ID)
To measure the spring’s ID, insert the inside small caliper jaws into the spring's helical coil and record the measurement. The ID may be important for certain spring applications that accommodate a mandrel or similar component. - Wire Diameter
Locate a section of the spring wire that is not wound into a helical coil. Place the outside large caliper jaws around the spring wire at this location and record the measurement. The wire diameter of a coil spring is one of the main determining factors of a spring’s strength and is critical to check. Free Length
To determine the spring's free length, place the length of the helical coil section between your calipers and record the length. Take extra care not to load the spring during measurement.Total Coils: Then count the total number of coils on the spring, including coil portions in your total count (Total Coils). Measuring the spring’s length and counting the number of coils will allow you to determine if any are damaged or missing.
Explore More Dimensional Measurement Guides
How to Measure Extension SpringsHow to Measure Compression SpringsHow to Measure Torsion Springs
FAQs About Small Coil Springs
What are the most common types of small coil springs?
The most common type of small coil springs falls within one of the main spring subtypes, which are differentiated by the direction of the load and displacement they are designed to accommodate. These subtypes are extension, compression (including conical, tapered/barrel, die springs, etc.), and torsion springs.
Do I need a custom small coil spring?
Standard small coil springs are readily available in various sizes and specifications. However, if you determine that you need a custom-designed small spring that we do not carry in stock, call us today at 800-237-5225 or fill out our Custom Quotation Form today!
How can I extend the life of my small coil springs?
In general, you can enhance the longevity of your spring by considering these design factors.
- Optimize your Design: To minimize spring stress during deformation, choose a small spring with larger wire diameters or investigate whether you can reduce your application’s design loads.
- Consider Material and Environmental Protection: Choose suitable materials and treatments for specific environmental conditions.
- Cyclic Loading: If your application does have significant dynamically oscillating loads, you should check to ensure that the operating frequency is significantly lower than the spring's natural frequency to avoid resonance issues
What material should I choose for my small coil springs?
In short, consider your application's mechanical loads, corrosion resistance, and temperature requirements. If your application experiences high loads or deformations, consider a high-strength alloy. If corrosion resistance is paramount, you may want a stainless steel spring. Additionally, advanced Nickel-based alloys may be appropriate for use in applications that experience very high temperatures.
What tolerances can I expect on my small coil springs?
Spring tolerances depend heavily on the exact spring type and geometry. As such, we have performed extensive empirical studies, which we have used to develop tolerance equations for different manufacturing techniques. We have combined these with the best industry standards to create general tolerance ranges for springs commonly employed in the Aerospace and Defense industries. However, these calculations can be very involved, so we have integrated them into our design and manufacturing automation software.
However, if you Contact our Design Team today, we will gladly walk you through these calculations to provide general tolerance values for your spring type and geometry!
Why Choose Century Spring
Our Commitment to Quality and Service
Century Spring is a quality-first, ISO 9001 and AS9100D certified, industry-leading spring supplier specializing in stock and custom springs. We are the most trusted name in spring manufacturing, offering products and expertise to serve every corner of small spring markets.
Our dedicated custom spring development and customer support teams help you navigate critical design criteria such as size, material, surface finish, and end type to find your application's optimal spring solution.
Our experienced product engineers, knowledgeable product quality team, and skilled manufacturing personnel always deliver the highest quality products to you faster than our domestic and international competitors. Our springs are always Made in the USA.
We offer rapid delivery on over 40,000+ in-stock designs available to ship today. We are committed to getting products to you as quickly as possible because we understand your design scheduling constraints.
Visit us today to discover how our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction vastly improves your product design process!
Innovation and Customization in Spring Manufacturing
We bring extensive design for manufacturability (DFM) expertise to your project. We also have dedicated, high-speed machines that can quickly scale high-quality spring production processes to large part volumes.
Our Manufacturing Services include prototyping and tooling assistance. We also have cutting-edge computational equipment simulation and testing techniques, such as CNC compression self-monitoring and coiling machinery. These capabilities enable us to deliver durable, reliable products across many custom sizes and styles.
Our team will work directly with you to create, refine, and optimize spring designs to fit specific tolerance, performance, and use case conditions. We are ready to partner to solve your most pressing design challenges.
Get In Touch
Contact Information
Contact Us directly today, and let our experts resolve all your technical and sales questions. We can also guide you through all our available secondary operations for each spring type and material.
If you need immediate assistance, you can always reach us at our dedicated phone line to speak directly with our team: 800-237-5225.
Request a Quote and Consultation
If you can’t find the small coil spring that suits your needs in our catalog, you can always Request a Custom Quotation so we can partner with you to customize a spring design for your unique application.
Once we hear from you, our design team will follow up with a quote for a custom solution and be happy to answer any follow-up questions you may have.