EXAMINATION OF COMPOSITE DISC SPRINGS

Abstract

This study aims to produce composite disc springs from carbon prepreg material, which is close to the characteristic curve of the steel disc spring or better than steel, which constitutes a group of machine elements. In this way, the design will be lightened without significantly diverging from the force/deformation ratio of the disc spring. For this, first of all, a standard steel disc spring was selected, and its characteris-tic curve was determined by the finite element analysis method. For the composite disc springs to be pro-duced, the selected steel disc spring geometry was taken as reference, and different cone heights (taper angles) and different orientation angles of the carbon prepreg layers were determined as variable parame-ters. For all these parameters, finite element analyses were made for the carbon prepreg material in the ANSYS Workbench module, and the disc springs de-signed using these analyses were produced by the autoclave method in a closed mold and tested. As a result of compression tests, spring characteristics of steel and composite disc springs were obtained and compared. The results reveal that composite disc springs produced in certain parameters have more suitable characteristics than steel disc springs.