FAQs – Key Bellevilles

Belleville disc springs share many of the same characteristics as a general washer. Bellevilles are conical in shape and are designed to be loaded in the axial direction. The advantage of a belleville is that it provides a spring type characteristic while simultaneously acting as a washer.

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The belleville spring, created in the mid 19th century, is named after Julian F. Belleville who is credited as the inventor of the belleville spring.

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A popular use for the belleville spring is where heavy load requirements in restricted space is necessary. Some variables required for the design of a belleville spring include outside diameter (De), inside diameter (Di), material thickness (t), and dish height (ho). Infinitely variable spring characteristics are achievable by the arrangement of disc springs into columns stacked in series or in parallel.

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Hi guys,

I need an info on Belleville washers. I want to know what is the max number of times a single belleville washer can be used/reused. I want to know this because the mechanics where I work were once told to only use the same washer twice. We have a LOT of washers here and I wonder if they could use them more than 2 times.

Thanks a lot for your time,

Simon
I just did a simple Google search and turned up many instances where the manufactures of Belleville Washers go out of their way to promote the idea that they have done extensive fatigue testing and they assure the buyer that their products are resistant to fatigue failure.

Based on this impression, it would appear that this is an issue which the manufactures are talking about without really being prompted to do and as such it suggests a couple of things. 1) it feels as if there has been problems in the past, which could very well explain why your mechanics warned you about this, but 2) it would also appear that the manufactures may have responded to this by producing better products and backing them up with test data. I would say that Tmoose might have the right idea, check with the manufacture of the washers that you're using and see what they have to say about the fatigue life of their particular products.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. There are a tremendous amount of computational engines for stress analysis on the web. Your issue is one of cyclic loading and lifetime. You can definitely re-use a Belleville Washer stack more than twice, depending on your application. In my experience, rare to use them only twice, probably a mis-spec of the application. They are way more reliable than that!

Do the research and ensure the Belleville Washer application suits the components needed.

Kenneth J Hueston, PEng
Principal
Sturni-Hueston Engineering Inc
Edmonton, Alberta Canada I used to work with machine tools and they are often used to securely hold tools in place. These tools could be subjected to 'tool changes' many hundreds of times per shift. This would constantly be putting the washers under stress/fatigue. In seven years I didn't have to replace a single one.

That said I have seen failures with them in my current job, but they are subjected to far greater forces (400 Tonne presses) and in a harsh environment (concrete products). Agree with Grindy. We own many CNC machines and have rebuilt many draw bar systems that retain a machine tool holder in the spindle. It is very common to get approx 100,000 tool changes without issue. They are usually compounded in series and parallel to achieve a target amount of travel and force. They are usually compressed to max every time, then released BUT they are usually at about 20-40% of compression when released so they retain a draw force on the tool when running in the spindle.

IMO, you can get a lot of cycles from them. IMO, the nasty vibrations and harmonics from machining largely contributes to the failure of the washers, not just the fatigue limits. I know of a product where belleville washers are used as spring packs for actuators where the actuator can and often does drive into the spring pack when subjected to high operating torque. The flexure of the spring pack allows the mechanism to flex so that a torque switch can be made (or broken) when the flexure exceeds a preset value.

These washers flex to some extent every time the actuator operates if it is operating at or near its rated torque and only flex to the maximum extent so as to trip the torque switch if the design torque value is exceeded.

These belleville washers certainly are "reused" time and time again without ever being disassembled.

rmw Tend to agree with looslib...

The mfg will probably say change them every time - since they are in the business of "selling" them.

For non-critical apps - I am sure they can be re-used. But if you are building space shuttles or holding jet engines on airplanes or building race cars - I think I would use new ones every time. Sometimes NEW = Never Ever Worked (before), especially in this age of components from suppliers from far away. Not that it was all good in the good old days, or sometimes they make 'em much better than they used to, but..............

Some moderately strict MIL spex allow reusing nylon locking nuts multiple times, or until the prevailing torque drops below some nominal value.

Some Bellevilles are designed so as to not exceed their yield strength when squashed completely flat, so would be hard to damage in that regard by tightening very hard. I am watching this post for sometime and without dis-respect I am disappointed with the shallow discussion regarding Belleville spring selection and design. No one even mentioned that the theory and closed form design and analysis formulations or Belleville springs (cone disc springs) are well known for decades. Every engineering graduate student should be able to use those formulas to design a new spring and to check how an existing of off the shelf spring will fit the design goals.

When a Belleville spring is compressed to flat or even beyond flat, three types of stresses are usually needed to be taken into account. One is a compressive strength at the top inside diameter of the spring and the other two are tensile strength (one at the bottom large outside diameter and one at the top inside diameter of the disc). Therefore, for cyclic operation only the tensile stresses should be taken into account. However, most if not all Belleville spring manufacturing processes include a preset (scraging or set remove as it is sometimes called) process as that last process that induces favorable residual compressive stresses at the points where tensile stress governs the design. Therefore, much higher loads are able from such a spring compared to a spring that didn't include a preset process in it's manufacturing process.