Smalley Blog

August 12, 2019	Ask the Expert - Tensile Strength vs. Hardness: Importance for Wave Spring and Retaining Ring Design 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 tensile strength and why it’s important to wave spring and retaining ring design. To ensure you know how a material will perform in a working environment, several physical properties can be measured to better understand material behavior.... Read More>>
July 29, 2019	Ask the Expert - Wave Spring Compression and Deflection Welcome back to the Ask the Expert Blog, where our engineers answer commonly asked ring and spring design questions. This week, our experts field some questions about the performance characteristics of wave springs. For more than 50 years, Smalley has been the industry leader and technological pioneer of retaining rings, constant section rings, and wave springs. Whether you require a standard or... Read More>>
July 18, 2019	Ask the Expert - Wave Spring Cycle Life and Material Welcome back to the Ask the Expert blog, the blog is designed to help educate you on all things rings and wave springs. This week, the expert fields some questions on the cycle life of wave springs and the materials of wave springs. Can you provide cycle life data for your springs? Yes, we can estimate the theoretical cycle life of our springs using a series of special equations. Note that... Read More>>
April 22, 2019	Ask the Expert - NACE Compliance Welcome back to Ask the Expert! This time Smalley’s Expert Engineers answer questions about NACE compliance. What is NACE? NACE, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, is a not-for-profit technical organization known worldwide as the authority for solutions in corrosion control. NACE works with many industries, such as marine, oil & gas, industrial, and utilities to create standards... Read More>>
March 7, 2019	Application Spotlight: Self-Locking Rings in Automotive Applications Smalley offers an array of standard retaining rings for different applications. Selecting the appropriate ring requires an understanding of the application requirements, which includes thrust load, groove dimensions, and many others. If your application rotates at high speeds, the rotational capacity of the retaining ring will be important to consider. When an application requires that the... Read More>>
February 13, 2019	Smalley’s Finishes for Retaining Rings and Wave Springs Whether you need added corrosion resistance or simply want to change the appearance of your part, Smalley has a wide range of finishing processes to ensure that your retaining rings and springs perform the way it needs to in your application. Below is a list of some of the more common choices Smalley has available. Oil Dip is a standard finish for all of Smalley’s products produced in carbon... Read More>>
January 22, 2019	Smalley's On-Time Delivery Smalley strives to provide you with the best customer service possible. This is why we strive to be the best in the industry when it comes to getting your order delivered as quickly as possible, whether your order is large or small. At our headquarters in Lake Zurich, IL, we stock thousands of standard retaining rings and wave springs that can be shipped same day for next day delivery. If you... Read More>>
January 9, 2019	Application Spotlight: Nested Spirawave Wave Springs Smalley’s new Nested Spirawave® Wave Springs can be used in applications across many different industries. They are used to replace a stack of single-turn wave springs or when a single-turn spring cannot produce the forces necessary within an application. Below are just a few examples of how nested springs can be used. Bearing Preload Nested Spirawave springs produce two to three times more... Read More>>
December 18, 2018	Introducing Smalley’s Newest Standard Wave Spring Series: Nested Spirawave® Springs! Smalley is proud to announce the first standard line of nested wave springs on the market. Though we have offered Nested Spirawave springs as a custom for 30 years, they will now be available from stock in carbon and 17-7 PH stainless steel from .500 to 4" or 16 to 100 mm. What are the benefits of Nested Spirawave Wave Springs? Two to three times the force Nested wave spring forces increase... Read More>>
November 27, 2018	Ask the Expert - Wave Spring Compression and Load Welcome back to Ask the Expert! This time Smalley's Expert Engineers answer questions about wave spring functionality. When a wave spring is compressed, does its diameter increase? What happens to the spring load at work height if the outside diameter is confined? The diameter of a wave spring will grow with compression. This is also referred to as diameter expansion, and all Crest-to-Crest®,... Read More>>