Analysis of variable frictional contacts wave springs fabricated using MultiJet fusion additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM), often known as 3D printing, is a fast-growing fabrication technology that is rapidly displacing traditional manufacturing due to its capacity to manufacture complex geometries with ease of customization, such as in the case of wave spring designs. Such springs have prospective uses in a variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, and biomedical where researchers/engineers are interested in the mechanical properties of such springs. Slippage of coils is one of the significant phenomena that was noted during axial compression of additively manufactured wave springs. This study aims to investigate the effect of variable frictional contacts between the coils of wave spring on energy absorption, stiffness, load-bearing capacity, and compression behavior during loading- unloading. Nine contact wave springs with different profiles, i.e., sine, square, concave, convex, V, and mixed profiles on the surface of coils, were designed and fabricated using HP MultiJet fusion printer. Compression testing was performed up to ten cycles to analyze the mechanical performance and compression behavior of each design. The sine profiled coils showed the highest energy absorption, with the minimum energy loss from the first to the tenth cycle while having the lowest stiffness among all the designs for this study. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that these variable fictional contacts improved the stability of the designs as the coil’s slippage resistance increased and has a significant impact on mechanical properties, allowing the researchers to design wave springs for different applications based on load/stiffness requirements having variable dimensions. Experimental results were compared with finite element analysis (FEA), which was performed using the identical boundary conditions of experimental testing and showed minimum variation in terms of load-bearing capacity and compression behavior.