Joseph Winter

Stress Relaxation in Spring Materials

While the size, function, and materials of construction of springs vary substantially, end of life performance and reliability ultimately depend on stress relaxation characteristics. For example, the contact pressure provided by mating electrical and electronic components dictate reliability as some minimum pressure is required to insure a stable connection1,2. Stress relaxation determines the final contact force and as a consequence, relaxation data now are more or less routinely measured for important copper alloy electrical spring materials3–6.