Fabrication of Spring Compressors for Automotive Workshops

Abstrak

Nowadays, conventional methods are often used in compressing the
coil spring in the car absorbers for the removal process and the
Macpherson strut spring compressor set is the most popular choice.
However, this method is very time-consuming with the installation,
compression, and removal processes. Therefore, air gun tools with
compressor systems have been the option to substitute or replace the
method to accelerate the process. The only drawback of this method is
it is relatively expensive for small and medium automotive workshops.
Therefore, this project aims to design and fabricate an upgraded
version of the old spring compressor set to facilitate mechanical work.
This tool is portable, easy to use and cheap to purchase. This tool
consists of a cylindrical frame with the top section, a compression head
secured to and axially adjustable relative to the frame, and the bottom
section to support one opposite section of the strut assembly. Then,
the bottom section is applied with force from the hydraulic jack to
compress the coil spring and enable strut removal from the top section.
Finally, the dismantling process can be easily performed. A simple
market survey and the questionnaire form have been distributed to ten
workshop mechanics in Kuching, Sarawak. The feedback gained was
very encouraging and positive. Post-testing also showed that this
spring compressor tool could remove the coil spring in a shorter time,
which was 2 to 3 minutes, compared to the old spring compressor
method, which required 4 to 5 minutes in the pre-testing process.
Lastly, this machine is cheap at a cost of RM295.50. Therefore, this tool
shows great potential to replace the current conventional methods in
automotive workshops.