Helical Spring Rate Calculator

Enter the shear modulus, wire diameter, coil diameter and active coils to get the spring rate.

How to use

  1. Enter your values in the fields above.
  2. Press Calculate to see your result instantly.
  3. Use the Share button to copy a link to your result.

About this calculator

The spring rate (or stiffness) of a helical compression spring — the force needed per unit of deflection — follows k = G·d⁴ ÷ (8·D³·n), where G is the material's shear modulus, d is wire diameter, D is mean coil diameter, and n is the number of active coils.

Because the wire diameter is raised to the fourth power while coil diameter is cubed, small changes in wire thickness have an outsized effect on stiffness — a fact mechanical designers rely on when tuning a spring for a target load-deflection curve in suspensions, valves, or mechanisms.

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