1. Rising rate compression springs It is common in the manufacture of modern sensors and motion devices for a magnet or other nonlinear device to be used to provide motion. In many cases, a counteracting spring is required to balance the load. As the distance between the components decreases, additional spring load is desired to balance the increasing force of the device. Working with a sensor manufacturer, HyTech has developed a rising rate compression spring. The spring rate is low through about 2/3 of its working range, but then the rate increases sharply for the balance of the stroke. This effectively balances the rising force from the assembly. 2. A major manufacturer of door hardware had an issue with a small compression spring. Springs received from their existing vendor did not fit on the mandrel they worked over and the spring rate was below the drawing specification. After struggling with this issue for some time, the manufacturer came to HyTech for a better solution. We received their drawing showing minimum and maximum coil diameter, a minimum spring rate, and a maximum solid height. Increasing the spring rate above 2.5 lb/inch was the most important goal. According to our calculations, the spring was manufacturable, but with .006” diameter wire spring performance would be borderline. HyTech’s design review showed that tight controls on the body diameter and a spring made with .007” wire would achieve a higher spring rate, and still fall within the OD and ID tolerances required. A prototype run was made, first using .006”, and then changing to .007” 302 stainless steel spring wires. The .006” wire did not produce a sufficient spring rate. The .007” wire resulted in a spring rate of 4.86 lb/inch, exceeding the customer’s expectations. The drawing has been revised to show the new design, and production has been proceeding without the issues that they were experiencing previously.