MEE302

Design of Machine Elements

Review 1
Topic: Leaf Springs

Done by:
Valluri Ashish 14BME0222
P. Dwarakesh 14BME0673
Shaikh Mohd Tabish 13BME0592
Rakshit 14BME0531

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 ABSTRACT

Although leaf springs are one of the oldest suspension components they are still
frequently used, especially in commercial vehicles. Being able to capture the leaf
spring characteristics is of significant importance for vehicle handling dynamics
studies. This report describes the theoretical design considerations that are used
during the design of leaf springs including the design of various accessories such
as rivets, bolts, nuts, clips and mainspring. It also describes
the manufacturing process of leaf springs and the failures that are caused in the
leaf springs and their remedies. Various tests such as fatigue test, tensile test are
carried out to determine the failure analysis of leaf springs and necessary
modifications are described in order to increase the fatigue strength of leaf
springs. This report also describes when to repair and when to replace a deformed
leaf spring.

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 INTRODUCTION TO LEAF SPRING

Originally Leaf spring called laminated or carriage spring, a leaf spring is a simple
form of spring, commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. It is also
one of the oldest forms of springing, dating back to medieval times.

Sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring or cart spring, it takes the form

of a slender arc-shaped length of spring steel of rectangular cross-section. The
centre of the arc provides location for the axle, while tie holes are provided at
either end for attaching to the vehicle body. For very heavy vehicles, a leaf spring
can be made from several leaves stacked on top of each other in several layers,
often with progressively shorter leaves. Leaf springs can serve locating and to
some extent damping as well as springing functions.

A leaf spring can either be attached directly to the frame at both ends or attached
directly a tone end, usually the front, with the other end attached through a
shackle, a short swinging arm. The shackle takes up the tendency of the leaf
spring to elongate when compressed and thus makes for softer springiness

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 History of Leaf Spring
There were a variety of leaf springs, usually employing the word "elliptical".
"Elliptical" or "full elliptical" leaf springs referred to two circular arcs linked at
their tips. This was joined to the frame at the top center of the upper arc, the
bottom center was joined to the "live" suspension components, such as a solid
front axle. Additional suspension components, such as trailing arms, would be
needed for this design, but not for "semi-elliptical" leaf springs as used in the
drive. That employed the lower arc, hence its name. "Quarter-elliptic" springs
often had the thickest part of the stack of leaves stuck into the rear end of the side
pieces of a short ladder frame, with the free end attached to the differential, as in
the Austin Seven of the 1920s. As an example of non-elliptic leaf springs, the
Ford Model T had multiple leaf springs over its differential that were curved in
the shape of a yoke. As a substitute for dampers (shock absorbers), some
manufacturers laid non-metallic sheets in between the metal leaves, such
as wood.
Leaf springs were very common on automobiles, leaf springs are still used in
heavy commercial vehicles such as vans and trucks, and railway carriages. For
heavy vehicles, they have the advantage of spreading the load more widely over
the vehicle's chassis, whereas coil springs transfer it to a single point. Unlike coil
springs, leaf springs also locate the rear axle, eliminating the need for trailing
arms and a Pan hard rod, thereby saving cost and weight in a simple live axle rear
suspension
A more modern implementation is the parabolic leaf spring. This design is
characterized by fewer leaves whose thickness varies from centre to ends
following a parabolic curve. In this design, inter-leaf friction is unwanted, and
therefore there is only contact between the spring sat the ends and at the centre
where the axle is connected. Spacers prevent contact at other points. Aside from
a weight saving, the main advantage of parabolic springs is their greater
flexibility, which translates into vehicle ride quality that approaches that of coil
springs. There is a trade-off in the form of reduced load carrying capability.
Like most other fundamental mechanisms, metal springs have existed since the
Bronze Age. Even before metals, wood was used as a flexible structural member
in archery bows and military catapults. Precision springs first became a necessity
during the Renaissance with the advent of accurate timepieces. World exploration
and conquest by the European colonial powers continued to provide an impetus
to the clock makers' science and art. Firearms were another area that pushed
spring development.

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 DESIGN OF
LEAF SPRING

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 DESIGN OF LEAF SPRING

Materials for leaf spring:

The material used for leaf springs is usually a plain carbon steel having 0.90
to1.0% carbon. The leaves are heat treated after the forming process. The heat
treatment of spring steel produces greater strength and therefore greater load
capacity, greater range of deflection and better fatigue properties.
According to Indian standards, the recommended materials are:
1.For automobiles: 50 Cr 1, 50 Cr 1 V 23, and 55 Si 2 Mn 90 all used in hardened
and tempered state.
2.For rail road springs: C 55 (water-hardened), C 75 (oil-hardened), 40 Si 2 Mn
90(water hardened) and 55 Si 2 Mn 90 (oil-hardened).
3.The physical properties of some of these materials are given in the following
table. All values are for oil quenched condition and for single heat only.
Physical properties of materials commonly used for leaf springs:
Material Condition Ultimate Tensile Yield Brinell
Tensile Strength(MPa) Hardness
Strength(MPa) Number
50 Cr 1 Hardened 1680-2200 1540-1750 461-601
50 Cr 1 V 23 and 1900-2200 1680-1890 534-601
55 Si 2 Mn 90 Tempered 1820-2060 1680-1920 534-601

STEEL:
Introduction
Steel is an alloy of iron that contains the element iron as the major component
and small amounts of carbon as the major alloying element.
The carbon contents in steel ranges from 0.02% to 2.0% by weight. Small
amounts, generally on the order of few percent, of other alloying elements such
as manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel and molybdenum may also be present,
but it is the carbon content that turns iron into steel. Also the properties like
toughness and ductility are obtained by the addition of elements like manganese,
chromium, nickel, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, silicon etc. Steel is the most
common and widely used metallic material in today’s society. It can be cast or

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wrought into numerous forms and can be produced with tensile strength
exceeding 5GPa.
Types of steel
Steel can be classified in many ways, such as method of manufacturing, its final
use and AISI standards, but mostly steel can be classified into following two
categories:
1.Carbon Steel
2.Alloy Steel
Carbon Steel
Carbon steel is steel that receives its distinctive properties, mainly form
carbon it contains. Other elements, such as manganese, silicon, phosphorus and
sulphur may be present in relatively small amounts and their purpose is not to
modify the mechanical properties of steel. The carbon content of this grade
may ranges from a trace to 1.7%. The plain carbon steels are usually divided
into three grades on the basis of their carbon content. These are given as under.
a) Low Carbon Steel
The plain carbon steel in which carbon content ranges from 0.08 to
below0.3% are known as low carbon steel or mild steel. Mild steel is not much
affected by heat treatment processes specially hardening process. A decrease
in carbon improves the ductility of mild steels. These steels possess good
machinability and weld ability. They are used for making wires, rivets, nuts
and bolts, screws, sheets, plates, tubes, rods, shafts, structural steel sections
and form general work shop purposes.
b) Medium Carbon Steel
The plain carbon steel in which carbon content ranges from 0.3 to 0.8%
are called medium carbon steel. These steels are stronger than mild steel but
are less ductile. Their mechanical properties can be much improved by proper
heat treatment. They have lesser machine ability than mild steel. However, they
can easily be welded and forged. They are used for making stronger nuts and
bolts, shafts, various steel sections, high tensile tubes, springs, locomotive,
large forging dies, hammer and agricultural tools etc.
c)High Carbon steel
The plain carbon steel in which carbon content range from 0.8 to 1.8%
are known as high carbon steel. The structure and hardness of steel increases

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 with the increase of carbon content and the strength is almost maximum at
about 0.8% carbon, there after hardness continuously increases while strength
decreases. Ductility and machine ability of steel decrease with increase of
carbon content from mild steel onwards. Their mechanical properties can be
altered by proper heat treatment. They are mainly used for making springs,
wood working tools, press work dies and punches.
Alloy Steel:
Alloy steels are the type of steels in which elements other than iron and carbon
are present in sufficient quantities to modify the properties. The utility of alloy
steels lies in the fact that they permit a much wider range of physical and
mechanical properties than is possible in plain carbon steel.
Alloy steels may be classified in many ways but for the purpose of convenience
we may divide it as follows:
a) Micro alloy steel:
Micro alloy steels are those steels in which the total alloying elements
present in steel other than iron and carbon are below one percent. Micro alloy
steels are widely used in many engineering industries such as manufacturing
of pipe lines, automobiles and in aircraft industries. Micro alloy steel is used
in these industries because of its good strength, light weight and good weld
ability. Some common micro alloy steels contain small amounts of vanadium
m, columbium, copper, manganese. Micro alloy steels are only slightly
heavier than pure iron but are as strong as some steels.
b) Low alloy steel:
Low alloy steels are those steels in which the total alloying elements
present in steel other than that of iron and carbon are above one percent and
below 5%. Low alloy steels have superior mechanical properties than plain
carbon steels. Superior properties usually mean higher strength, hardness, hot
hardness, wear resistance and toughness.
Spring Steel
Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel with a very high
yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to
their original shape despite significant bending or twisting. Spring
steel chemical composition which is given as under:

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 ELEMENTS IN LEAFSPRING % OF ELEMENTS
CARBON 0.5 ~0.65
SILICON 0.15 ~0.35
MANGANESE 0.65 ~0.95
PHOPHOROUS 0.035
SILICON 0.035
CHROMIUM 0.65 ~0.95

Depending on the type of application, springs are made of carbon steels, silicon
and manganese containing steels, silicon-manganese steels, alloyed steels,
stainless steels. Springs must be capable of storing and releasing the energy. After
repeated applications of load, they must retain their original shape and
dimensions. This property may be attained by the use of a highly elastic material
and by proper design because the allowable stress values determine the choice of
material and design. Major requirements of spring steels are:
1.Should have a highly yield strength (of the order of 21000kg/mm^2) or more
accurately, a high proportional limit, so that it will not show any appreciable
permanent set
2.High fatigue strength under alternating and fluctuating stresses with a reserve
for occasional or more frequent overloads (e.g. Vehicle springs when stressed in
their resonance range)
3.Should have an adequate plastic range for the forming (winding) of the springs.
These desirable properties of springs can be achieved firstly by a higher carbon
content or with suitable alloying elements, and secondly by heat treatment. The
actual springiness of steel is determined by its modulus of elasticity which is
about 21000kg/mm^2, the modulus 0f rigidity being about 8000kg/mm^2. It is
possible to influence the modulus of elasticity and shear by severe cold working
treatments. Spring failure is almost invariably from fatigue, with some stress
raisers are nucleus.
Spring steels are used in hard, high strength condition. To attain these properties
springs are hardened and tempered. In the hardened condition, the steel should
have 100%martensite to attain the maximum yield strength to avoid excessive set
in service. The presence of retained austenite in the hardened condition lowers
the yield strength and produces excessive set.
Use of carbon steel for smaller sections in martensite as against sections in which
hardness will be less when carbon steel is used. However, harden ability of the
steel may be increased by the addition of alloying elements. To get high yield
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strength on tempering martensite needs to be high in carbon. The combination of
high carbon along with alloying elements will possess the desired hardenability
in different sections. Hence the desired properties of spring can be achieved firstly
by higher carbon content or by addition may occur if the hardening temperature
is too low.
For many applications, where the working stresses are low, carbon spring steels
are quite satisfactory for smaller cross- sections. But, for higher duty springs,
steels of higher harden ability are used. In addition to carbon steels, mainly alloy
steels having principle alloying elements such as manganese- silicon, chromium,
vanadium, molybdenum, etc., are used for production of springs. Spring steels
that are commercially available are carbon spring steel, silico-manganese steel,
manganese alloyed steel, silicon alloyed steel, chrome-vanadium steel, etc.
Drawn spring steels used for highly duty valve spring in the automotive and
aircraft industries are coiled in the annealed condition, and finally hardened and
oil-tempered, as this treatment imparts to them improved fatigue strength.
Springs of small dimensions are also made from patented drawn spring wires
coiled in the cold state. They possess a very high tensile strength and elastic
properties compare to the normally drawn wire. They also posses good ductility
and toughness. Springs made out of patented wire do not require hardening. They
are only subjected to tempering at 200 to250C.
Types of Leaf Springs:

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Manufacturing of
Leaf spring

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Manufacturing of leaf spring

Raw material

Shearing or cutting process

Drilling

Eye rolling of main blade

Hardening

Tempering

Hardness testing

Fitting

Painting

Inspection

ready for supply

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RAW MATERIALS:
Generally, leaf springs are made of various fine grade alloy steel. The most
commonly used grades of steel are 55 Si 7,60 Si Cr7,50 Cr V4. The others are En
45 A, 65 Si7,55 Si Cr 7,65 Si cr7, En 42 60 s 87. In our project we are going to
use En 42 60 S87 grade of steel alloy. Generally, the width of the raw material
varies from 40-100 mm and thickness varies from 4to 20mm

Steel alloy

SHEARING OR CUTTING PROCESS:

Shearing is a process for cutting sheet metal to size out of a larger stock such as
roll stock. The raw material is cut into different sizes with the help of the 100 ton
cutting press machine.
1)At first the raw material is placed on the roller bed so that it will be easy to
move the material towards the machine.
2)Required length of the material to be cut is measured with a tape and marking
is done on the raw material.
3)Now move the material in to the cutting area of the machine so that the mark is
placed exactly at the cutting edge of the blade.
4)Now lock the material with the help of the lock nut provided.
5)Allow the lubricant to flow for free action of cutting and for reducing friction.
6)Now apply the load on the material by pressing the brake provided.
7)Now the required length of the material piece can be obtained.

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DRILLING OPERATION:
Necessary holes are provided on the strips of leaf springs to hold all the plates
together. So drilling operation is performed. Generally vertical drilling machine
is used for this operation.
a. The given material piece is placed on the table of the drilling machine.
b. The diameter of the required hole is chosen and the required drill bit is
connected to the spindle.
c. The workpiece is placed in the required position for drilling and the coolant
oil is sprayed over the work piece.
d. Now by applying the hand lever the required hole diameter is drilled.
Required number of holes are drilled.

100-ton press cutting machine Vertical drilling machine

EYE ROLLING OF MAIN BLADE:

The master blade is heated at its two ends for eye formation, these are done
to attach with the frame of the vehicle. The heating is done in the end heating
furnace at a temperature of 1000 degree centigrade. The heating is done only at
the ends so that it will be easy to bend at the ends.
Furnace oil and the air are used for heating the furnace. The furnace is first
allowed to heat freely for 45 mins. Now the master blades are placed in the
furnace such that only ends are heated.
After heating is done for one end it is bend to form the eye and again itis
placed in the furnace to heat the other end. After heating the main blade is bent
slightly to form curve at the end with the help of 50 ton punching machine so that
it will be easy to roll to form eye formation.

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 In the eye rolling machine the master blade end is placed between the
circular wheel and the die. after placing the hand lever is moved so that the end
of the master blade rolls over the die thus forming eye shape.

Eye rolling of main spring Hardening

HARDENING(QUENCHING):
Hardening is carried out to achieve the maximum hardness. The main blades
after the eye formation are heated to a temperature of 800-1000degree centigrade
in a furnace to increase the hardness of the material. The other blades along with
main blades are heated in the furnace. The furnace is heated by using air and
furnace oil through conventional air flow system. The conventional air flow
system is used to mix both air and furnace oil for heating purpose. A pump is
provided for the air to go out.
After heating the blades in the furnace for 45 minutes they are taken out and
bent to the required angle on the hydraulic bending machine. The required angle
can be obtained by using required angle dies. The blades after making the required
angle they are immersed in the Quenching on oil to increase the hardness. The
hardness at the end of this stage is about 50 to 60.

Hydraulic bending machine

Following are the factors of affecting the hardening process.
 Chemical composition of steel.
 Size and shape of steel part.

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  Hardening cycle, i.e. heating rate, hardening temperature, holding time and
cooling rate.
 Homogeneity and grain size of austenite.
 Quenching media.
 Surface condition of steel part.

TEMPERING:
Quenched steel, while very hard and strong, is too brittle to be useful for most
applications. A method for alleviating this problem is called tempering. For most
steels, tempering involves heating to between 250 and 500 °C, holding that
temperature (soaking)for an appropriate amount of time (on the order of seconds
or hours), then cooling slowly over an appropriate length of time (minutes or
hours). This heat treatment results in higher toughness and ductility, without
sacrificing all of the hardness and tensile strength gained from rapid quenching.
Tempering balances the amount of hard martensite with ductile ferrite and
pearlite.
In some applications, different areas of a single object are given different
heat treatments. This is called differential hardening. It is common in high quality
knives and swords.

Tempering process Tempering furnace

Purpose of tempering
 Improve ductility
 Improve toughness
 Reduce hardness
 Increase% elongation
 Relieve residual; stresses
After the hardening process the blades are dried and again heated in the
furnace for tempering process. In the tempering process the blades are heated to
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nearly 6oo degree centigrade for nearly 80 minutes to decrease the hardness up
to 30 to 40. Here also air along with furnace oil is used for heating process. After
tempering is done the blades are removed from the furnace and they are dried in
air.

HARDNENING TEST:
Hardness is usually defined as resistance of a material to penetration. It also
refers to stiffness or resistance to scratching, abrasion or cutting. In the most
general accepted tests, an indenter is pressed into the surface of the material by a
slowly applied known load, and the extent of the resulting impression is measured
mechanically or optically. A large impression for a given load and indenter
indicates a soft material, and the opposite is true for a small impression.
Following are the testing methods used to determine hardness. The scratch
hardness test (one material scratches another or not)
 The Brinell hardness tester (ball indenter)
 The Rockwell hardness tester (diamond cone or steel ball indenter)
 The Vicker hardness tester (diamond pyramid indenter)
 The shore Scleroscope (the height of bounce of diamond tipped hammer)
we generally use Rockwell hardness tester for testing the hardness of the steel.

FITTING:
In this section the leaf springs along with the main spring are fitted together
with the help of clamps, bolts, nuts and rivets.

CLAMPS:
Clamps are the devices which are used for holding the leaf springs together.
Clamps are made of Mild Steel. Generally, 4 clamps are used for 12 plates and 2
clamps are used for 7 leaf plates. the clamps are arranged at equal distance from
the centre.
BOLTS AND NUTS:
Bolts and nuts of different sizes are used in the holes provided on the leaf springs
to hold them tightly.

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RIVETS:
Rivets are used for holding the clamps and leaf springs together.

BUSHES:
Bushes made of MS with gold coating are inserted in to the eye rolling end of the
mainspring in order to the wear.

Clamps Bolts and Nuts Bushes

PAINTING:
After fitting operation, the leaf springs are allowed for painting operation. Two
types of paints are generally used for leaf springs:
(1) Black (2) Green.
Black paint is generally used for high quality leaf springs and Green is used for
low quality leaf springs. The leaf springs are placed on the painting table and now
the required paint is sprayed over it with the help of Spray gun.

INSPECTION:
Inspection is carried out by authorities regularly to check the quality, performance
of the leaf springs. The leaf springs with bad quality or with low performance are
rejected and once again allowed for manufacturing.

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STOCK READY TO SUPPLY:
After inspection the leaf springs with good quality and performance are allowed
to stock storage. Now the stock is being ready to supply.

Stock ready to supply

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Failure analysis of
leaf spring

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Failure analysis
Spring failures may be categorized into three types:
Early Life Failures
• These type of failures occurs generally due to a spring defect, installation
problem or overload. This may be due to the material used, the manufacturing
processes or improper installation techniques. This type of failure may also be
caused by a short-term over load condition.
Midlife Failures
• Once the spring has passed the time in service which would expose early life
failures, a very low failure rate should be observed, assuming the spring is
subjected to normal service.
Late Life Failures
• At this point, the frequency of spring failures will tend to increase rapidly as the
useful life of the spring has been reached. By this time the spring steel has been
fatigued and corroded to a point where its useful life is over.
Failures occurring in early and midlife of the spring are usually most
economically handled by repairing the broken leaf rather than replacing the
spring. Failures in older springs occur at a point when all leaves have reached
their fatigue life the spring should now be replaced. The difficulty, of course, is
determining what type of failure the spring has experienced. Basically, the
condition of the spring, as well as its service history, will indicate if the spring
should be repaired or replaced.

Quench cracks:
Quench cracks, which are aligned normal to the length of the leaf, have been
identified in shot peened and polished surfaces. These cracks have been attributed
to an improper quenching process. It is established by theoretical analysis that the
leaf thickness is smaller than the critical plate thickness required for this
composition of steel, and that leads to an increase in quench severity. It appears
that some of these quench cracks have propagated by a fatigue mode which is
confirmed by the presence of beach marks on the fractures surface. Observation
of intergranular cracking and the presence of FeS inclusions at the prior austenite
rain boundaries implies that some sort of grain boundary embrittlement might
have facilitated crack growth and led to failure. It has been suggested that
quenching should be carried out by recommended procedures guided by the
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thickness of the component and chemical composition of the steel. Careful
inspection of the surface after quenching must also be carried out to maintain
quality assurance in order to avoid premature failure.
The failure analysis of a leaf spring which failed prematurely during service was
carried out using
1. Optical and scanning electron microscopy
2. hardness and tensile testing,
3. residual stress evaluation by X-ray diffraction.
Microstructure of Failure & Received Material
As we know that the microstructures have a significant influence on the
mechanical and physical properties of the materials. Therefore, we examined the
microstructures of samples in different conditions, viz. As rolled, hardened
tempered shot penned. The changes in microstructure with respect to the
treatment given to the material are very clear in the figures given below. For the
best fatigue resistance, tempered martensite structure is obtained, because it is an
ideal structure with low mean free path available that is extremely small,
uniformly dispersed cementite in uniform ferrite (similar to spheroid, but much
smaller).

Failure Material Leaf Spring and Received Material Leaf Spring

Tensile Test of Leaf Spring
Tensile test is most frequently performed to determine the certain mechanical
properties. Tensile strength can give an idea of fatigue strength, as fatigue
strength is almost half of tensile strength in most cases. The standard tensile

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strength of in tempered condition according to JIS G 4801 is
125kgf/mm^2(126N/ mm^2) minimum.
Factors influencing fatigue life:
Overloading
• The higher the loads or deflections seen by a spring, the lower its fatigue life.
Shock Absorbers
• A properly functioning shock absorber will tend to reduce the spring deflection
as the vehicle hits a bump. Lower spring deflections mean lower operating
stresses on the spring which in turn gives longer fatigue life. This is especially
true for full taper springs which do not have the high interleaf friction to help
dampen spring deflections. Worn or missing shock absorbers must be replaced to
maximize spring life.
Brake Adjustments
• Improperly adjusted brakes can also reduce spring life. Under braking, springs
are expected to absorb some of the braking forces. If the brakes on an axle are
unevenly adjusted one spring will have to absorb more than its share of braking
force which can reduce its fatigue life.
Protective Coatings
• Corrosion is one of the major factors in reducing spring life. Proper paints and
care during handling and installation can help to slow the spread of spring
corrosion. On full taper springs the only acceptable coating is the individual
painting of each leaf with zinc-rich paint. This paint may be recognized by its
characteristic grey colour.
Surface Condition
• The condition of the spring surface also has an effect on fatigue life. Generally,
a fatigue crack will start at some sort of surface defect on the spring leaf.
Therefore, care needs to be used when manufacturing and installing springs to
reduce these defects to a minimum.
Shot Peening
• Extensive testing indicates that shot peening can increase the life of springs by
a factor of three or more. It is not enough, however, to simply shot peen the first
one or two leaves in an assembly-all leaves must be shot peened. All major
vehicle manufacturers specify that their OEM springs have each leaf shot peened.

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Decarburization and Steel Quality
• Improper manufacturing methods can also reduce fatigue life. For example,
poorly controlled heat-treat furnaces can excessively decarburize the leaf surface.
Decarburization is the loss of carbon from the steel surface which will result in a
soft leaf surface once heat-treating is complete. This soft layer will not be able to
handle the spring stresses and will lead to early failure. Poor steel quality can also
influence spring life. If the steel has excessive impurities in it, the fatigue life will
be reduced.
Maintenance
• Finally, improper maintenance will affect spring life.
• Spring eyes and other suspension components should be regularly greased to
prevent binding.
• U-bolts should never be reused.
• Axle seats, top plates and other components should be periodically inspected
and replaced as required.

Increasing the fatigue strength of leaf spring:

In order to increase the fatigue strength of leaf spring you have to do the
following:
Carefully polish the surfaces of the springs to remove any surface defects or
machining marks that will be the location for crack initiation Shot- Peen the steel.
Bombard the surfaces of the spring with steel shot, which cold works the steel,
which hardens the surface and puts it into a state of compression, which impedes
crack propagation.
Temper the steel. When initially forming the piece, cool the outer surface quickly
to put the surface into a state of compression, which will also impede crack
propagation. (There’s another definition for Tempering steel, which is heating it
to stabilize and de-stress the crystal structure.)
Quench the steel, when forming the piece, the faster you cool it down, the more
steel gets locked into a Martensite phase, which has better fatigue properties.
However, if you quench it too quickly, you develop thermal stresses and cracks,
which will obviously weaken the steel. (Another method for increasing the
Martensite percentage is to heat treat the steel before tempering it.)

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Case is thus expended more than the core because,
(Austenite Martensite) volume increase by 4% and
(Austenite Ferrite + pearlite) volume increase by 3%,
This is lesser than that.
During fabrication, prevent air pockets or contaminates (non-metallic inclusion)
from getting into the steel. These contaminates will provide starting points for
cracks to form.
Increase the carbon content from 0.5% to about 0.95%. This will harden your
steel and improve the fatigue properties.
Finally, you could just decrease the applied load on your leaf spring steel has the
nifty property of a “Fatigue Limit”, which means that if your loads are less than
a certain value, then you can cycle the part as many times as you want without
ever seeing fatigue fractures. Most non-ferrous alloys such as aluminium or
copper will not have a fatigue limit.
Fatigue cracks that have begun to propagate can sometimes be stopped by drilling
holes, called drill stops, in the path of fatigue crack. However, it is not
recommended because a hole represents a stress concentration factor of about 2.
There is thus the possibility of anew crack starting in the side of the hole. It is
always for better to replace the cracked part entirely. Several disasters have been
caused by botched repairs to cracked structures.
In the end we are able to conclude that fatigue life of leaf spring can be increased
if:
 The vehicle is loaded not greater than load for which it has been manufactured.
 Proper cleanliness of leaf spring is done and also it should be avoided from
water and mud etc. as much as possible to minimize the corrosion of leaf
springs.
 The government takes appreciable steps to improve the smoothness of the road
network in the country.
 Shot-peening must be done to create residual compressive stresses as fatigue
failure always occurs in the tensile stresses.

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When to Repair
• If the spring has not been repaired or repaired only once. Stamping a 1 in the
clip for the first repair and a 2 for a second repair will help identify the number
of previous repairs.
• If the spring mileage is less than half of normal life.
• If the repair cost is less than 1/2 the cost of a new spring.
• If no more than two or three leaves are broken.
• If the failure is not of a fatigue type for example, a leaf broken through the center
hole is caused by improper spring clamping brought on by loose U-bolts or worn
axle seats, not fatigue. This spring should be repaired, if possible, and the cause
of failure corrected. Even when it appears to make sense to repair, the following
should be kept in mind:
1. Repair leaves are usually not shot peened and must often be heavily hand-fit to
match the old spring. Therefore, the repair leaf will not be as durable as a leaf in
a new spring would be.
2. Since the remaining leaves have lost some of their strength, the replaced leaves
will be carrying more of the load than they were originally designed for.
3. When the leaves first broke the remaining leaves in the spring had to carry
more load and were probably overstressed.
4. Replacing the broken leaves does nothing to restore the fatigue life of the
reused leaves. These leaves will continue to fail since their fatigue life is
essentially over.
When to Replace
• The spring has already been repaired once or, at most, twice.
• The spring service mileage has exceeded 1/2 its normal life.
• The repair cost exceeds 1/2 the cost of a new spring.
• More than two or three leaves are broken.
• If small fatigue cracks can be seen running across the leaf width near the U-
bolts on the unbroken leaves.
• If the leaf tips have separated away from the leaf above.
• Never attempt to repair a full taper spring.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES/WEBSITES

Books:
1.“A Textbook of Machine Design” by R.S. KHURMI AND J.K. GUPTA.
2.William D Callister. “Fundamentals of Material Science and Engineering”.
Fifth Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1985
3.Mikell P. Groover, “Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing” Second Edition.
John Wiley & Sons. INC.
4.Metals Handbook. Volume 1 Microstructure
5.Heat Treatment Principle and Technique by T.V Rajan, C.P Sharma, Ashok
Sharma
6.Steel and Its Heat Treatment by K.E Theling

Websites:
1.http://www.wikipedia.org
2.http://www.howstuffworks.com
3.http://www.tpub.com
4.http://www.google.com
5.http://www.answer.com
6.http://www. freepatentsonline.com
7.http://www. procarcare.com

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