Products > Springs
Stainless Steel Springs
Century Spring offers decades of experience designing and manufacturing many types of stainless steel springs and wire-form products for industries ranging from medical devices to aerospace equipment. Unlike ordinary steel springs, stainless steel springs offer superior performance in preventing corrosion and temperature resistance. They offer this chemical resistance without requiring any additional surface treatments or coatings.
Our vast inventory of in-stock springs and standard parts is available for same-day shipping to deliver your needed parts as quickly as possible. Additionally, our dedicated custom spring development and customer support teams understand the needs of various industries and applications. They can help you navigate design criteria such as spring size, materials, surface finishes, and end types to find your application's optimal spring solution.
Whether you need a small stainless steel spring for a dishwasher or a high-performance, large stainless steel spring for oil and gas drilling equipment, discover how our expansive spring inventories and custom spring design expertise can best serve you today!
Explore Our Stainless Steel Springs Range
We offer stainless steel springs in multiple alloys across numerous spring types, with passivation surface treatment options.
You can shop our expansive selection of in-stock springs available for same-day shipping by spring type and filtering by size, end type, finish, and more.
Custom Stainless Steel Springs and Alloys
We are ready to collaborate directly with you to design stainless steel springs to fit unique applications. Stock stainless steel springs can easily be adapted to suit many customized applications.
We understand that quality and engineering excellence are prerequisites when designing and manufacturing stainless steel springs in critical safety systems. Our manufacturing and quality control systems are fully ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, and all custom products undergo a rigorous first-article, in-process, and final inspection process.
Our state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies feature CAD and CAM tools, allowing us to quickly create digital CAD designs and transfer them to our CNC spring coiling and forming machines for production runs. Our automated production machines and robotics can quickly perform complex multi-axis manufacturing techniques such as spring coiling and forming operations. These capabilities allow us to serve industries that need large volumes of customized stainless steel springs in accelerated development programs.
Custom Stainless Steel Spring Manufacturing Capabilities
We offer customization options for a custom stainless steel spring that includes outer diameters, wire diameters, free length, spring rate, end types, or tighter tolerances. We can even offer custom options to fit your application's load and deflection requirements.
While a 300 series stainless steel spring can meet the corrosion resistance requirements of most applications, we also offer additional stainless steel alloys, such as 17-7PH, as custom options to provide protection in the most demanding environments, such as marine applications and within oil and gas drilling equipment.
Furthermore, we proudly offer exotic, high-performance stainless steel alloys as customization options, including 316LVM, Duplex, and super Duplex stainless steel alloys. Duplex alloys derive their name because they comprise two metallurgical phases- austenite and ferrite while super duplex contains higher quantities of chromium, nickel, and molybdenum. Furthermore, 316LVM is a type of 316 stainless steel alloy that has undergone a secondary melting process during ingot production that provides a microstructure that provides additional crevice corrosion and pitting resistance. All three of these exotic, custom stainless steel spring alloys offer superior corrosion resistance and strength compared to 300-series stainless steel springs.
No matter your custom spring needs, we are ready to partner directly with you today to bring your custom springs to life. We are committed to minimizing total development time on every custom project, passing the time savings on to you as reduced procurement lead times.
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Stainless Steel Spring Information & Resources
Stainless Steel Springs Characteristics
In general, stainless steel springs are known for their corrosion resistance compared to carbon steel springs. They provide all the benefits of carbon steel springs, such as elasticity, strength, and excellent corrosion resistance. They also have excellent fatigue resistance under repeated cyclic loading. Together, these properties make stainless steel springs durable and low-maintenance spring options, even when exposed to moisture and corrosive fluids.
Furthermore, stainless steel springs feature a smooth, nonporous surface finish, making them easy to clean and not requiring frequent surface cleanings. They do not accumulate bacteria or other pathogens and are biocompatible, meaning they do not react with bodily tissues. These advantages make them popular choices for medical and food processing equipment applications.
Stainless steel springs are highly cost-effective and are not significantly more expensive than comparable carbon steel springs.
How to Select a Stainless Steel Spring
In general, selecting a stainless steel spring starts with determining whether you need a spring with additional corrosion resistance. Next, you should evaluate the level of corrosion resistance you need and choose 316-alloy stainless steel if you need further protection. Lastly, consider whether you need a custom high-strength stainless steel alloy, such as 17-7 PH or Duplex.
You should then consider your stainless steel spring's geometric properties and how they fit your design requirements. For example, stainless steel compression springs are defined by the following critical geometric properties: Free Length, Outer Diameter (OD), Wire Diameter, and Spring Rate.
For more information on how to select springs, including stainless steel springs, that fit your application, check out our dedicated guides for each spring type:
Material Types and Benefits
Most stock stainless steel springs are fabricated from 302/304 or 316 alloys.
302/304 alloys are the most cost-effective options to provide good general-purpose corrosion resistance. Alloy 316 offers better corrosion resistance, especially in more corrosive, immersive fluid mediums. Lastly, 17-7 PH stainless steel springs are available as custom options and provide significant additional strength compared to the 300 series steels and similar corrosion resistance as the 302/304 alloys.
At the chemical level, these alloys are primarily differentiated by the differences in Nickel, Chromium, and Molybdenum compositions. All 17-7 PH alloy stainless spring steels undergo a precipitation-hardening heat treatment to achieve additional strength and hardness.
Typical Tolerances
Stainless Steel 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 stainless steel spring types and geometry, which can be seen below.
Typical Tolerances:
- Wire diameter +/- 0.0005-0.001"
- Body diameter +/- 3-10%
- Free Length +/- 2-5%
- Loads and Rates +/- 10%
- Block tolerances do not apply to spring manufacturing
However, spring-specific tolerance calculations are complex and, as such, are fully integrated into our design and manufacturing automation software.
If you contact our design team today, we will gladly walk through spring-specific tolerance values with you to provide general tolerance values for your spring type and geometry!
Dimensions Measurement Guide
Using compression springs as an example, you can quickly obtain all of the relevant dimensional properties of your stainless steel spring by measuring it with calipers at the following locations.
1. Outside Diameter: Hold the spring on the outer surfaces between your fingers and use calipers to measure the outside of the coil to measure the compression spring's Outside Diameter (O.D.).
2. Wire Diameter: Use your calipers to measure the wire that forms the spring's helical shape to find the Wire Diameter. To be sure of the measurement, you should measure the wire diameter at both ends of the spring.
3. Free Length: Place the entire length of the uncompressed spring between your calipers to measure its Free Length.
4. Total Number of Coils: Place the spring flat on its side and count the total number of coils on the spring. Be sure to include even coil portions in your total count. (See the diagram for an example).
For more information about the Dimensional properties of all kinds of springs, check out our dedicated guides, tailored to each spring type:
How to Measure a Torsion SpringHow to Measure a Compression Spring
Applications and Industries
Where Stainless Steel Springs Are Used
If you know where to look, you can find stainless steel springs almost anywhere.
As detailed previously, they are prevalent in applications that demand a spring to be chemically inert with surrounding environments and materials, such as Medical Devices, surgical instrumentation, auto-injector syringes, and biomedical implants. For this reason, they are also used in food-grade processing equipment and machinery.
They can be found in dozens of critical Aerospace Safety Systems, the most recognizable being control surface actuation systems, which are the movable parts of the aircraft’s wings and tail that allow the pilot to maneuver the plane.
They are also used in numerous Automotive Components, such as engine valve springs, which facilitate the precise timing required for internal combustion engines.
Finally, stainless steel springs are also integrated into many springs are integrated into many household appliances and consumer products, such as dishwashers, door locks, and air conditioners.
FAQs About Stainless Steel Springs
Are stainless steel springs magnetic?
All stainless steel springs have a small degree of magnetism, imparted during the cold-forming processes used to wind the coils. However, the magnetism of stainless steel springs is far less than that of other spring steel alloys.
What are the primary advantages of passivated stainless steel springs?
The chromium oxide surface layer is the chemical mechanism that provides corrosion resistance. This surface layer prevents additional oxygen from reacting with the iron below. Passivating is a secondary chemical process that increases this surface layer to ensure it is sufficiently thick and unbroken. As such, it is strongly recommended for springs that will be subjected to highly corrosive mediums.
What is the difference between stainless steel alloys (300/302 and 316)?
Alloy 300/302 is a general-purpose stainless steel with good corrosion resistance in applications with light exposure to water or mildly corrosive mediums. In contrast, 316 stainless steel has more corrosion resistance against a wide range of fluid medium applications, which is why it is the favored alloy for medical and food-grade applications.
How else are stainless steel springs different from carbon springs?
It’s important to note that all 300 series stainless spring steels generally have slightly lower tensile strengths than high-carbon spring steels. The difference may not be consequential, but the designer should know the differences during the early phases of spring design.
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 and offer products and expertise to serve every corner of the stainless steel spring market.
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. All our springs are always made in the USA.
We offer rapid delivery on over 40,000+ in-stock designs available to ship today. We understand your schedule constraints and are committed to getting products to you as quickly as possible.
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.
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 manufacturing services also include complete prototyping and tooling assistance.
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 with you to solve your most pressing stainless steel spring design challenges.
Get In Touch
Contact Information
Contact us directly today, and allow our experts to resolve all your questions and guide you to one of our in-stock stainless steel springs that will fit your application.
If you need immediate assistance, you can always reach us at our dedicated phone line to speak directly with our team: 800-237-5225.
We are ready to provide comprehensive engineering support from your earliest design stages to final product approval.
Request a Quote and Consultation
We can also help you shop many different custom spring types and configurations commonly available used in stainless steel springs and determine whether a custom design would better suit your application.
Simply Request a Custom Quotation so we can partner with you to customize a stainless steel spring 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.