Material selection is just as critical as design and tolerances to ensure your small springs perform as expected. That’s especially true when the end application involves high performance, high stress, or exceptionally small-scale components – which is often the case for many of today’s high-tech aerospace and medical devices.
Despite many more specialized alloy options, one of the most widely used materials for miniature springs remains music wire: a high-carbon steel renowned for its mechanical properties and consistency.
As one of America’s leading custom spring manufacturers, HyTech Spring & Machine has helped develop custom music wire springs for customers throughout the aerospace, medical, and automotive spaces. Below, we offer some material expertise to help you understand the potential advantages music wire can offer your end products. If you need further assistance in choosing the optimum material for your application, get in touch with the experts at HyTech.
An Overview of Music Wire Springs: Material Advantages and Applications
Despite its name, music wire isn’t only for instruments like pianos and violins. While it was originally developed for musical strings due to its high tensile strength and uniformity, music wire is a cold-drawn, high-carbon steel wire widely used in many other applications today due to its excellent spring characteristics.
High Tensile Strength – Music wire offers one of the highest tensile strengths available in common spring steels, often exceeding 300 ksi depending on diameter. Higher tensile strength means:
- Higher energy storage per unit volume
- Smaller spring sizes without sacrificing force
- Excellent fatigue resistance in dynamic applications
Excellent Fatigue Life – Speaking to that third advantage, for applications involving repeated loading/unloading cycles (like valve springs or actuation mechanisms), music wire offers long, reliable fatigue life.
Good Elastic Modulus and Consistency – Music wire offers a good modulus of elasticity and modulus of rigidity. That means consistent performance, ideal for tight-tolerance applications where precise spring force and deflection are required.
Cost-Effective for High-Volume Production – Compared to specialty alloys like Inconel or nitinol, music wire typically offers a more favorable cost-to-performance ratio, so it’s an economical choice for more high-volume, cost-sensitive markets.
Common Aerospace Music Wire Product Applications:
- Switch and relay mechanisms in avionics
- Control system springs for actuation feedback
- Valve return springs in small hydraulic or pneumatic systems
- Latch and detent systems for interior components
Common Medical Music Wire Product Applications:
- Surgical instrument springs
- Diagnostic equipment – test cartridges, micro-actuators, etc.
- Drug delivery system components
- Sensor return mechanisms
Other Material Options for Your Custom Small Springs
HyTech works with a wide range of other wire materials which are optimized for small spring performance and reliability. See our technical articles below for similar overviews as above:
Optimized Materials for Your Custom Spring Manufacturing Project
HyTech Spring and Machine is the leading U.S.-based manufacturer of small springs and miniature wire form components. Whether you require music wire, nitinol, or any specific grade of carbon / stainless steel, HyTech sources premium wire materials which are processed in-house with precision.
