A Spring In Your Wheels

When you look at the route 66 signs that are still prominent in Tulsa, it’s hard not to fell the pull of one of our greatest traditions… the road trip. Nothing is more quintessentially American than packing a few things in the trunk and hitting the open road with friends or family. But the problems with roads is they’re tricky beasts full of irregularities, dips and holes that would make traveling on them impossible save for one of the most important system in your car, the suspension.

Even freshly paved highways have subtle imperfections that can interact with your car’s tires. These imperfections apply forces to the wheel, and according to Newton’s law of motion all force has both a magnitude and a direction. So when you hit a bump in the road it causes your wheel to vertically accelerate off the road after which gravity pulls it smashing down on the road. Without a suspension system to absorb and redistribute that energy all of it would be applied to the frame, causing you to feel every bump in the road, or worse send your car rolling over the side of the road. And an important part of any suspension system are the coil springs that absorb this energy and release it where the rest of the system can redistribute it harmlessly.

In fact it’s the tightness or looseness of the springs in your suspension that make the determination between how your car handles and the smoothness of the ride. A Loosely sprung car like a Lincoln Town Car can absorb bumps easily and provide a smooth ride, but it prone to dive and squat during braking and acceleration and usually experiences body sway during cornering. Whereas a tightly sprung car like a sports car, are less forgiving on bumpy roads, but they minimize any body motion and thus can be driven aggressively, even around sharp corners.

Whatever you need from your car, the springs inside the suspension can help you get it. And when the highways and hidden roads of this great country call out to you with offers of exploration and exciting new destinations and experiences, the springs we make at Ebsco both help you answer that call, and keep you safe while you do it.

Put a Lot of Spring In Your Seat

For generations, springs have been used in mattresses, chairs, and sofas to provide a firm-yet-comfortable sensation for those laying or sitting upon such pieces of furniture. While some are substituting springs in seats for new types of form-fitting foams, one designer has decided to go in the opposite direction and make a chair mainly entirely from springs. For the those crazy about springs or just looking for a conversation starter, the Home Improvement and Knowledge Q & A Blog has a piece dedicated to spring furniture. 

For quality springs custom-made right in Tulsa, OK, Ebsco Spring Company manufactures custom springs for everything from the aerospace industry to springs for the medical field as well as agricultural equipment and beyond. 

Spring-Powered Car: Did It Exist?

In a time when auto-innovators are looking for the next answer to alternative energy for the road, one blast-from-the-past comes to us in the way of spring technology. According to one newspaper article from 1933, supposedly the Japanese had developed a spring-powered car that could drive 40 miles on a single "wind up"; whatever that entailed. Little else is known about the car since it doesn't appear they were put into production, but pondering on whether or not the car actually existed and could they ever exist is half of the fun of this legend. For more information on this possible myth-mobile, check out Modern Mechanix's piece for the full scoop on this tightly-wound wagon. 

For more information on the use of springs and custom spring manufacturing, visit the offical site of Tulsa, OK's own Ebsco Spring Company. For the finest springs made in the U.S.A., look no further than the spring experts at Ebsco Spring.