Optimal catalogue selection and custom design of belleville spring arrangements

International audienceA Belleville spring is usually used in mechanical systems to obtain large loads for small distances of travel. Such a spring has a non-linear load-length curve. Moreover, Belleville springs are commonly stacked together in series or in parallel or both. Thus, defining a design that uses Belleville springs is not an easy matter. The existing assistance tool only checks whether a proposed design is acceptable or not. To improve design assistance, we show how optimization processes can be used in order to build a tool that interactively proposes an optimal design directly from the designer’s requirements. The tool presents both an optimal design using a Belleville spring taken from a catalogue and an optimal custom design. An illustrative example is presented to highlight the benefits of using such an assistance tool