Design and Durability Testing of Composite Mono Leaf Spring

A leaf spring is commonly used for the suspension in vehicles. It is an automotive component which is used to absorb vibrations induced during the motion of vehicle. Leaf springs are long and narrow plates attached to the frame of a trailer that rest above the trailer's axle. The load on the leaf spring acts on the center. The spring thus vibrates and prevents the vibrations to pass over to the other parts. There are single leaf springs and multi leaf spring used based on the application required. It also acts as a structure to support vertical loading due to the weight of the vehicle and payload. The Glass fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) composite mono leaf spring reduces weight of the machine element without any reduction of the load carrying capacity. It has high strength-toweight ratio compared with those of steel. Also multi-leaf steel springs are being replaced by mono leaf FRP spring. The objective of this project work is to design and manufacturing of composite leaf spring.The experimentation is conducted for durability and results are compared with steel leaf spring.