Spring Creator 5.0 is a powerful tool designed to simplify your spring design process. One of its key features is the ability to calculate your tension spring's maximum safe travel, (Max Travel). This value is instrumental in ensuring that your spring operates within its elastic limit. When you exceed this value by overextending your spring, you risk causing it to take a permanent set, affecting its performance.

In the world of spring engineering, we emphasize this value: Maximum Travel is Maximum Safe Travel. It means you cannot and should not exceed going past this number, for if you do the extension spring will take a permanent set and NOT return to its original length or worse the spring can get distorted or break. This is why it is paramount that you should never go past the Maximum Safe Travel distance on your spring. 

The calculation of Max Travel is intricate, taking into account the tightness of the spring coils index, forming of the spring hook and the tensile strength of the selected material. Spring Creator 5.0's extension spring calculator handles these complexities automatically. It calculates the stress on the hooks as the load increases, ensuring that you have a precise understanding of your spring's behavior.
 

The distance your spring can travel is influenced by the level of stress it experiences. The stress is a result of the proportions of its dimensions. A spring with a tight spring index, characterized by a large wire diameter in proportion to the coil diameter, or a spring with minimal coils along its body length, may be strong but under significant stress, affecting its elasticity. Our travel chart provides insights into the adjustments you can make to maximize your spring's travel, while the spring index diagram illustrates the differences between small and large indexes. Example: If you want more travel add more coils in your spring design. If you want more travel you could increase the outer diameter which would increase the springs index and give you more travel.