My first job out of high school in 1974 was a summer job at a small spring company in Santa Clara where I operated old school cam operated style coilers.
That summer I must have made 10 million springs that went into the little mechanism that popped up out of your turkey when the proper internal temperature was reached. Flash forward to 1990 when I was production manager of a large spring/stamping company in the east bay that was firmly entrenched in the world of old-school mechanical spring machines. I had been reading about the new CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) wireforming machines coming from Japan and knew this was the future of spring making.
The Itaya MCS-15G was the first CNC machine I bought after forming Peridot in 1996. These machines are extremely versatile and very accurate albeit not particularly easy to set up. Video here: Itaya
The Double conical spring picture above was made from 1.5 MM diameter 304 stainless steel. Post coiling operations included laser engraving marker bands on the 200 MM long straight tail and laser welding a stainless steel ball on the leg.
The board clip is produced from .8 MM diameter 302 stainless steel. It is used to tie a heat sink clip on top of a machined heat sink in a networking application.
This double torsion is produced complete in one operation using 1 MM diameter 17-7 PH Condition C wire. The spring is then heat treated to condition CH900 in house enabling the full material properties. This is a high stress application where the lesser tensile and yield strength of 300 series stainless would not suffice.
This miniature double torsion spring has a fancy tie bar. The spring is made from .4 MM diameter 302 stainless steel spring temper wire per ASTM-A313.
Busy little guy here made from .5 MM diameter 316 SS.
The above application was unique in that we employed a driven chamfering tool right on the machine to automatically chamfer the wire end. Material here is 1.2 MM diameter 304 LVM wire.
This part was formed hot (shape set) from 1 MM diameter Nitinol SE800 material. We used electrical induction heaters right on the machine to heat the wire for forming. The tools had to hold the shape in place until the wire cooled sufficiently.
Garter spring made from .3 MM diameter wire. One end has the coil diameter reduced so that it neatly screw into the other end. These are used in lieu of a drive belt in a miniature motor.
Made from 1.5 MM diameter plated music wire, this wireform was supposed to clip in the button hole of your shirt. You would then pass the temple arm of your glasses through the large eye so that when you bent over your glasses would not fall to the floor. Did not sell well LOL.
This small wireform holds a glass tube in place to protect from pulling forces. Material is .6 MM 304 SS.
Component used for wire management on a circuit board. Material is plated Beryllium Copper.
The above wire is used as a scaffolding for a balloon used in a cardiovascular procedure. Material is Titanium 3AL4V in .5 MM diameter. This part has been tumble deburred and electro-polished.
Nichrome heater coil used in a pulmonary drug delivery system. Wire diameter here is .4 MM diameter.
Our last example is a jumper wire made from Phos Bronze Alloy 510 spring temper in .8 MM diameter wire.
After seeing these examples I hope that you consider leaning on Peridot Corporation’s considerable expertise in wire forming.