Safety

Other Factors to Consider

3.4 Safety

3.4.1 Buckling

Buckling of a gas spring will not occur if the stroke meets the recommended length requirements of the chart shown to the right. (It is based on the EULER equation for long slender rods, and the design limitations of overall spring length, for smaller shaft diameters).

As is shown in the chart, all AVM gas springs have a maximum stroke of 15 inches.

The pressure in a gas spring is determined by: pressure = output force/shaft area. The shaft areas are as follows:

6 mm shaft is .0491 in2
8 mm shaft is .0779 in2
10 mm shaft is .1217 in2
3.4.2 Burst Pressures

Burst pressures of gas springs are recommended to be a minimum of 5 times the charge pressure to meet DOT design requirements. As of this printing, DOT has reduced this to 4 times the charge pressure.

3.4.3 Side Loading

Side loading is tested as shown in Figure 23. The gas spring should withstand the loads as shown in the table below for a given shaft diameter.

6 mm
40 lbs
20 lbs
n/a
n/a
8 mm
79 lbs
40 lbs
27 lbs
20 lbs
10 mm
154 lbs
77 lbs
52 lbs
39 lbs


Figure 23