Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-01
AUTOMOBILE SPRINGS
SUBJECT OF STUDY
Questions Concerning Analyses OF
ingredients Bring Forth Import
ant Facts of the Auto
Industry

The investigation and practice of the
members of the association of Licensed
Automobile Manufacturers as to the
springs which carry their car bodies
and frames make a very interesting
tale.
Many gradeo of metal domestic and
foreign have been used, including
chrome nickel steel and steel contain
ing chromium combined with tungsten
and vanadum.
With special alloy steel very su-
perior article can be produced, pro-
vided the requirements OF heat treat
ment are followed. By some it is ad-
vanced that siliCo-manganese steels
will endure longer than high carbon
steels. Springs of certain specified
analysis are today being made, which
will successfully Withstand any test to
which they would be subjected.
Typical practice is to have the proper
ingredients in the initial product, in
sisting upon a strict maintenance of
this standard when the product is de-
livered, following with a standardized
method of treatment all the way
through, including the requirement
that the spring will take only so much
set under the first test and stay there.
1t is necessary to have the furnaces
in which the steel is treated under
pyrometer control, with very slight
variation in temperature allowed; and
with a so-called soft" heat, not harsh
or severe, as to which the kind of fuel
employed is important.
The most commonly used heat treat
ments are annealing, hardening, tenn
pering, hardening and annealing, dou-
BILE annealing, and double hardening
and annealing.
1t is contended by some producers
that a spring with the least arch, that
is, the nearest fiat, is the safest spring.
if enough room for the proper amount
of DETECTION is reserved. This Is on
the theory that the greater the arch
the greater is the fibre strain in
spring.
In connection with front springs, one
authority states they should, to
preserve proper resilieney' not be
thicker than their width; should
Election of not over One-Cuarter of an
inch per hundred pounds; not self
centered: and have the front eye set
higher than the rear eye not less than
one-half inch, this latter preventing
the car from ducking.
That in rear springs, where the prob
lem is relatively easy, the length and
width should be as great as possible.
if made scientifically as to the spacing
of the leaves, the length of the taper
and the grading of the steel.
There can be made a spring that will
take certain dimensions under a given
load. and ten thousand other springs
which win take the same dimensions
under the same load, but ii is es-
sential that they have large number
of leaves of special grade steel speci-
ally tempered, with an absolutely cor
rect grading so that there will be
spring play from the center of the eye
to the center of the spring.
1t has long been seen that the car
riage spring steel of the last quarter
of a century will not do for automo-
bile springs Successful experiments
of the last ten years have given us
various satisfactory designs for auto
mobile springs; securing reliability and
ease Of riding with lower suspension
Of the body,
The weight, the speed, the traction
feature and the variation of passenger
load are elements that never, until the
case of the automobile, existed to the
same extent in any one vehicle,