Material Types

Spring Material Types & Finishes

Customizable solutions are what you need when it comes to spring metal applications, no matter the industry. As a company that serves garage door OEMs, we also support the use of mechanical springs for things like dock levelers, trailers, agriculture equipment, and snowplows.

Solutions made fast and simple — this is what we strive for each time we work with you to create a customer specific spring. Do you need a stainless steel spring with a plating finish or an oil-tempered material with a powder coating finish? Whatever your needs, we’ve got you.

Wire Materials Available

Finishes Available

Garage Door Torsion and Ascension Spring Components

When you need components that can handle heavy lifting, it’s important to determine the best material for the job. If you need mechanical or garage door springs, our torsion springs lift and lower garage doors that are several hundred pounds, while compression, extortion and barrel springs are great for heavy equipment and dock levels.

If you’re not sure where to start with material types and finishes, here’s a quick guide to get you started.

Spring Material Types

Spring materials and their properties range from the high tensile strength of chrome silicon and the humidity resistance of galvanized springs to the bendability of music wire and the high elasticity of stainless steel springs. A spring material comparison involves looking at each spring material’s properties and determining the best set of applications for each.

Spring material types include:

• Chrome silicon wire
• Galvanized wire
• Hard drawn wire
• Music wire
• Oil-tempered wire
• Square wire
• Stainless steel wire

Chrome Silicon

If you work in high-temperature environments, chrome silicon wire has high tensile strength and resilience, making it an unmatched spring type. It is often used for heavy shock loads and for mechanical applications. Other benefits of chrome silicon are strength and wear resistance. Even through repeated use, high temperatures and intense shock loads, chrome silicon wire springs can withstand your harshest applications. Chrome silicon spring sizes range from .08 to .625 inches.

Galvanized

Galvanized torsion spring types are your best bet for residential and commercial sectional garage doors. Available in sizes from .192 to .406 inches and lengths up to 144″, galvanized springs have excellent durability for both mechanical and garage door springs. They are also corrosion resistant, helping to maintain the aesthetic of your product.

Our galvanized springs  are more durable in humid environments. IDC Spring offers custom stenciling and lengths up to 144″. 

Hard Drawn

Hard drawn wire is manufactured to a specific diameter without further processing, which makes it one of the more affordable steel wire types. Because this wire is highly versatile, it supports a range of applications. We offer hard drawn wire customizations with sizes between .080 and .625 inches for mechanical springs.

Music

Noted as one of the toughest steel wire options, music wire springs deliver incredible fatigue properties with high load and strength characteristics. As a reliable option for your products, music wire is made of uniform tensile strength and is a versatile solution for high-stress applications. This spring can withstand extreme levels of tension and is bendable while retaining strength, making it the perfect material for coiled springs. If you need customized music wire, its sizes range between .125 and .625 inches for mechanical spring applications.

Oil-Tempered

Oil-tempered springs are great for applications like residential sectional garage doors, commercial sectional overhead doors and mini storage warehouse doors. At IDC Spring, we can customize an order of oil-tempered springs to meet your exact requirements. With gapped springs or a powder coating as available options, this spring size ranges between .136 and .625 inches. Our oil-tempered wire mechanical springs give the advantages of strength, value, flexibility and availability. Oil-tempered wires are available for garage door and mechanical spring applications.

Square

When you need superior strength, square-wire springs are your go-to. These types of springs have more deflection compared to round wire options. Do you need torsion springs for a commercial door? Square mechanical springs are ideal for heavy-duty garage doors when long-term performance is crucial. We offer customizable solutions in sizes ranging from .312 to .437 inches for both garage door and mechanical springs.

Stainless Steel

Industrial applications that demand highly elastic and resilient solutions can rely on stainless steel springs for exceptional performance. With great fatigue strength and resistance to rust, chemicals and stains, stainless steel types can support a range of industrial applications like construction, food processing and pharmaceuticals. This spring material type is corrosion-resistant, eliminating the possibility of tangling and warping. Other advantages of stainless steel springs from IDC include cleanliness, recyclability and cost-effectiveness.

This list entails some of the most common spring materials, and at IDC, we customize each piece to fit your exact requirements, environment and budget. Our experts are here to help guide you to the best solution that supports your applications.

Spring Finishes

For each type of spring material composition, there are different finishes available. For example, we offer the following:

• Plating
• Powder coating
• Shot peening

Plating Finish

The plating finishing process involves a thin layer of metal that coats the spring or wire formation. Advantages of this spring finishing process include corrosion resistance, reduced friction and enhanced strength. IDC conducts the plating finishing process via electroplating, which is a process that binds the two materials together.

Powder Coating Finish

While each spring material type has its own advantages and strengths, an extra layer of protection makes them last even longer. This is especially true when it comes to the powder coating finish we offer at IDC Spring. Because there is less stress on the spring material during the hot-drawn process we use, the material keeps its tension longer. The powder coating also protects the material from rust while enhancing the quality of your products. 

Shot Peening Finish

To help a spring material avoid corrosion and fatigue, we put it through the shot peening process. This means that the material goes through a cold work process. We cause compression stress strengthening by shooting spherical shots onto the material to create several layers of compression dimples. The shot peening finishing process makes the material harder, protecting it from corrosion, fatigue, cracks and erosion.

All the finishes IDC Spring offers support mechanical spring applications. Our powder coating process also supports garage door springs but not for plating and shot peening material finish types.

Get a Free Quote Today!

“We Make It Right” here at IDC Spring because we understand the importance of providing high-quality solutions to help you create high-quality products. We offer an all-inclusive product line that serves your unique requirements whether you need garage door springs or mechanical springs. IDC also provides customer specific solutions ordering and a free spring engineer app.

Reach out to an IDC Spring representative to learn more about the customizable spring material and finishes we offer or request a free quote online.