3. Shock springs

Springs can be used to reduce the effects of impact from a moving mass.

Mass deceleration is proportional to spring force, and to spring deflection in the case of constant-flexibility springs.

Consider, for example, a mass m subjected to a constant force P which gives it an acceleration γ . This mass comes into contact with a spring whose deflection under load P is equal to f .

The deceleration-deflection curve (figure 7 ) is the straight line passing through point A of acceleration γ and zero deflection, point O of zero acceleration and deflection f and point B corresponding to maximum spring deflection f _M which gives the value γ _...