Current Material and Design Failures
Most (all) current springs are manufactured from music wire (high carbon steel). Music wire has poor corrosion resistance, which can affect spring performance in adverse weather conditions. Many times, these springs are plated to improve corrosion resistance but often, the plating process engenders durability issues as they are not prepared properly for long-term use prior to plating. More importantly, music wire has a maximum service temperature of 250°F and can be negatively effected at temperatures as low as 185°F. As a spring nears its maximum service temperature, the heat promotes spring set, damage to the spring and is detrimental to the relaxation of the spring. Additionally the material used limits the design and angle of the spring hook radius, necessitating and ensuring a repeated fail point (visible at the bend where hook end meets coil) in most all traditionally designed, widely distributed kart springs.
iKart Competition Springs
Each spring is manufactured from certified aerospace specification 17-7ph stainless alloy. After winding, the springs are fully heat-treated, stress relieved and passivated. Although our aerospace stainless needs no plating we passivate our springs in order to decontaminate and cleanse the metal at a microscopic level post-winding, combating the debilitating effects of winding on the metal. This step in our engineering process, combined with the high strength, corrosion resistance, and Rockwell of C50 inherent in 17-7ph stainless translates to our springs withstanding a maximum service temperature of 700°F. Because of the quality of our materials and design process, our springs can be stretched for use up to double their resting length with no yield in recoil, offer consistent performance when heat becomes a factor, such as with header/exhaust springs and clutch springs, and are designed to minimize key fail points in current karting spring designs. Our full product line undergoes a 96-hour military stress test with no resulting corrosion, loss of strength, or durability.
No more losing races because a piece of hardware failed to do its job!
iKart Competition Springs currently are available for these primary applications:
- exhaust header
- pipe/silencer support
- side pods
- clutches