simulating a hairspring

[nmanousos]

I'm looking for some advice in simulating a hairspring. A hairspring is a flat spiral spring used in mechanical watches to oscillate the balance wheel. I have modeled the spring, but I am not sure how to simulate it. Is there some way to specify a part as being flexible, like a spring? The standard spring joint in dynamic simulation mode seems to only work with a helix spring - a hairspring needs to be flat.

Here is a youtube video of a hairspring in action. You can see it breathing / expanding in and out as the balance wheel oscillates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYpnVy-n9tE

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Nicholas Manousos

[henderh · Accepted solution]

Hi Nicholas,

  Although you won't be able to see the graphics of the spring itself, you can simulate the action in the joint properties of a rotational DOF.

  Video recording is attached.  The spring's free position is 0 degrees and initial position is 90 degrees.

Thanks, -Hugh

[nmanousos]

Thank you, that helps me out a lot!

Just curious - is there any other way to do this where I would actually see the spring flex? I have seen that this is possible with "normal" helix springs that are made adaptive and then driven. Is it just not possible with Inventor currently?

[henderh]

I suspect you can animate the hairspring in Inventor Studio by driving parameters.

JD posted a word doc tutorial about animating a helix spring just recently that should help.

You can create the spring using the 3D sketch Helical Curve command for a sweep path.

Best regards, -Hugh

[samolet4e]

A simple project of mine:

https://youtu.be/k5fQ6oxYTAw

Regards!