Smalley Blog

February 16, 2021	Smalley Launches New Catalog - An Engineer’s Go-To Guide for Rings and Springs Smalley Launches New Catalog - An Engineer’s Go-To Guide for Rings and SpringsPrint or Interactive Digital Download Available Lake Zurich, IL, February 18, 2021 – Find your next wave spring, retaining ring, and constant section ring in Smalley’s newest Catalog and Design Guide release. As the inventor of the edgewound wave spring with over 100 years of manufacturing excellence, Smalley has... Read More>>
February 8, 2021	Wave Spring Guide: A Brief Overview While finding the best possible design solution can be challenging, knowing what options are available can make it easier for you. One option Smalley provides is a wave spring. A wave spring, a type of compression spring, is a solution that optimizes space concerns while providing form, fit, and function. So what is a wave spring? Let’s start by defining what a spring is. Most people have used... Read More>>
January 22, 2021	Smalley Wins GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award for 8th Consecutive Year Lake Zurich, IL, January 21, 2021 - Smalley was presented the General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award for the year 2019, marking the 8th consecutive year to receive this prestigious honor. General Motors works with thousands of suppliers worldwide, but only a small percentage are presented with this award. The Supplier Quality Excellence Award is exclusive to top-performing suppliers... Read More>>
January 4, 2021	How to Control Corrosion: Material Selection for Rings and Springs Welcome back to the Ask the Expert blog. The blog is designed to help educate you on all things retaining rings and wave springs. This week, we talk about what corrosion is and why it’s an important factor to consider when choosing the appropriate material for retaining ring and wave spring design. What is Corrosion and Why Does it Matter for my Application? Corrosion is a naturally occurring... Read More>>
December 31, 2020	#1 Reason for Retaining Ring Failure and How to Overcome It Drills, saws, sanders, and grinders - what do all of these power tools have in common? Retaining rings keep them from falling apart. A retaining ring’s function is to hold components or assemblies in place. For a retaining ring in a power tool, this is no easy feat as it is regularly exposed to high axial and vibrational force. The retaining ring must maintain its integrity, despite the various... Read More>>
December 14, 2020	Special Rings: Self-Locking, Balanced, and ID/OD Lock Smalley Spirolox Retaining Rings are the trusted industry solution because of their unique configuration, reliability, and convenience across thousands of applications. While we have five standard types of retaining rings broken down into 30 configurations, we also know that every application is unique. If one of our standard retaining rings does not fit your application requirements, we... Read More>>
December 1, 2020	How We Package our Wave Springs and Retaining Rings I’ve found the perfect retaining ring or wave spring, but how do I get it here? The logistics of shipping and packaging can be a headache when you’re working with components of all sorts of shapes, sizes and quantities. To help simplify the process we’ve highlighted some of the key ways that Smalley can get you the parts you need quickly and efficiently. Bulk Polybag This is the most common... Read More>>
November 16, 2020	How and Why You Should Use a Wave Spring for Bearing Preload Preloading a Bearing: What is Preloading, How to Preload, Why Should You Preload a Bearing? What do we mean when we say “preload”? A bearing is designed to move freely and has multiple moving parts that work together as one unit. Tolerance stack up from both manufacturing and assembly can quickly cause issues. This is where preloading a bearing comes in. Preloading a bearing involves... Read More>>
November 3, 2020	What is a Retaining Ring? Smalley's Retaining Ring Overview Nails, screws, nuts, bolts, pins- the list goes on. What do these all have in common? They hold things together. When you staple a piece of paper or hang a painting on a wall, you’re joining two things together through the means of a fastener. So if we have many different types of fasteners, how do I know which one to use? Figuring out which fastener to use goes back to the application. Factors... Read More>>
October 19, 2020	Wave Spring Work Height and Compression What happens if I compress my wave spring below work height? Understanding how and when a wave spring can fail is important for achieving optimal performance in your application. One common reason a wave spring could fail is because of overstressing, otherwise known as over-compression of the spring. How do you overstress a wave spring? Compressing a wave spring below the design work height may... Read More>>