Spring steel
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Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon kind of steel. This alloy is used in springs because it does not easily lose its form. Technically, this means it has a higher elastic modulus compared to other steels.
Silicon is the key component to most spring steel alloys. An example of a spring steel used for cars would be AISI 9255 (DIN and UNI: 55Si7, AFNOR 55S7), containing 1.50%-1.80% silicon, 0.70%-1.00% manganese and 0.52%-0.60% carbon.
Most spring steels (as used in cars) are hardened to about 45 on the Rockwell C-Scale. Because of this rather average hardness, high carbon steels (which could reach a much higher hardness) are rarely used as spring steels.
According to Machinery's Handbook, “The spring materials most commonly used include high-carbon spring steels, alloy spring steels, stainless spring steels, copper-base spring alloys, and nickel-base spring alloys.” According to the same, the most widely used spring steel is ASTM A228 (0.80–0.95% carbon) known as “music wire”.
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