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I have recently discovered flexure springs (see image below), and I am interested in using one in an amateur project I am building.

However, I would prefer if I am able to adjust the "stiffness" of the flexure spring, to allow the spring to bear different loads.

Despite extensive searching online, I have not found a flexure spring design that provides flexible or adaptable stiffness.

Is it possible to have a flexure spring, the stiffness of which, can be adjusted?

enter image description here

Homunculus Reticulli
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  • Do you mean torsional spring? – ShadowMan Jul 29 '19 at 02:11
  • @ShadowMan No, torsional springs are quite different from flexure springs (see image attached in my question). – Homunculus Reticulli Jul 29 '19 at 18:13
  • I saw your picture. So then do you load that spring in a direction perpendicular to it's plane? – ShadowMan Jul 29 '19 at 18:21
  • Yes, that's correct – Homunculus Reticulli Jul 29 '19 at 18:44
  • This is probably well beyond a hobbyist approach. But a few magneto-rheological rubber bearings could provide a 'tuneable' spring constant. – ShadowMan Jul 29 '19 at 22:29
  • You can add holes with tapered threads and a tapered nut. – joojaa Feb 04 '21 at 06:18
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    You could look into adding additional of these units either in series or parallel and device some way of making them easy to take out. – John Feb 05 '21 at 19:43
  • There are helical springs with variable pitch, whose stiffness changes with preload, i.e. stiffen as they are compressed, and the preload can be screw-adjusted to vary the stiffness in the assembly. Maybe scissor mechanisms, where the angle can be varied, could be a possibility. The stiffness of compressed air depends on pressure. Leaf springs can be effectively shortened and thus stiffened with movable supports... – Pete W Mar 07 '21 at 20:22
  • With the spring that is shown, I imagine a second disc would be required, to partially remove the flexibility from some length of the cutout, by immobilizing variable locations in the main disc, relative to either the inside or outside ? – Pete W Mar 07 '21 at 20:25

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In your case the adjustable stiffens can be archived by modifying the shape from the spring. If you use different stiffens and allow some blocking this can be achieved. See screenshot. enter image description here

laurens van Lieshout
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