Craig Blome wrote:
> What gives? Is it too expensive to wind a hollow bar
> into a coil? Fatigue problems? Enquiring minds want
> to know...
Cost might have something to do with it, but I think that it's more of a
matter of durability. With torsion bars and sway bars, the spring is
being acted upon in such a way that all of the force put into it goes in
the form of twisting the bars, not compressing or stretching it out (as
a whole). With a coil spring, the force wouldn't be applied in such a
way that the spring is twisted only, and a small kink or weakness in one
part of the spring could cause the entire thing to fold over and break
like a soda can being crushed with a small indentation in the side. I
think that coil springs are made solid so that such kinks in the side
don't have such a dramatic effect. All IMO of course.
--
Cheers,
Henry C.
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* TAS: Physics 89 CR-X dx ES *
* Email: hchea@ramapo.edu OR OneTimeCRX@aol.com *
* TLS#28 *
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