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TUFF
COUNTRY EZ-RIDE TECHNOLOGY
 Tuff
country's EZ-Ride technology incorporates a 9 step process
to ensure high quality lifted leaf springs for your
truck or SUV.
Step 1
Tuff Country leaf springs are made of top quality straight
bar steel. To start the leafs are cut to a specific
length depending on the leaf spring design and application.
The raw bars of steel are transported from their storage
area to the cutting or shearing machines. The bars of
steel are passed under a cutter which cuts the bar to
the required leaf length.
Step
2
Having been cut to the right length, all leafs undergo
center hole punching and depending on their leaf number,
undergo disparate operations. The first leaf undergoes
eye forming whereas the rest may undergo tapering and
trimming.
Step
3
There are many different ways to form and eye at the
end of a leaf. Tuff country uses the very effective
Bartz Eye making process which is the most precise.
This process combines scarfing, curling and pin sizing
operations in the same working station. The scarf knife
shears the steel at the pin, a gripper die engages and
the eye is wrapped around the pin for accurate sizing.
Step
4
Now it is time for the tapering process to take place.
Point tapering is the tapering of the leaf end. Leaf
ends are tapered to give a better approximation of the
uniform strength beam, reduce weight and increase flexibility.
Tuff Country also rounds each spring end to help with
flexibility and ride characteristics.
Step
5
Heat treatment: after tapering the leafs undergo a heat
treatment which consists of four major operations: heating,
cambering, quenching and tempering. These are important
operations in manufacturing because the mechanical and
dimensional properties of the final product are very
sensitive to the two leading variables involved in these
operations, time and temperature. Heating is performed
by large furnaces. Leafs are placed on a conveyer system
and progress through the furnace slowly heating to 840
- 845°. Cambering is the shaping of the red hot
steel into an arc. Cambering must be done quickly and
carefully because the steel is cooling down rapidly.
After cambering the leaf is quenched in an oil bath
where its surface is cooled down at a precise rate.
Tempering is now performed on each leaf. Tempering is
the process of heating steel at an exact temperature
to make it softer and more ductile.
Step
6
Shot peening is applied to leaf springs to increase
the resistance to fatigue failure. The shot peen method
consists of shot being discharged from a rotating wheel
and accelerated by centrifugal force. This operation
increases strength and durability without increasing
the thickness of steel. Shot peening is definitely the
difference between success or early spring failure.
Step
7
Each spring is then assembled in proper spring stagger
with teflon friction wear pads between each leaf. Teflon
inserts help reduce friction, noise and wear. Once the
inserts are in place the springs are secured together
using a spring center bolt.
Step
8
Presetting is performed on the assembled leaf springs.
This process deflects the leaf spring to a specified
load position beyond a certain point to induce the compressive
stress on the leaf and at the same time achieve its
required load arch of the spring. After presetting has
taken place, the spring clips are closed.
Step
9
After final assembly leaf springs undergo a protective
coating process. Each leaf spring is dipped into a corrosion
preventing gloss black coating, thus completing the
manufacturing of the Tuff Country EZ-Ride spring.
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