What is a torsion spring?
Torsion spring is a kind of mechanical accumulating structure. Torsion spring can also be referred to as torsion spring for short. In ancient times, it was mainly used for ancient ballistas and other crossbows. Torsion springs undergo distortion or rotation of elastic materials with soft materials and greater toughness. Accumulate power and use it to make the projectile possess certain mechanical energy.
1. The presentation of torsion springs
The appearance of the torsion spring evolved from relying on the elastic deformation of the crossbow arm to the torsion spring using the principle of leverage to generate the launching force, which greatly increased the power of the crossbow, but it cannot be compared with the compound bow because the structure is too messy and awkward, even for field warfare. A light ballista requires two or three people to operate it. For example, a Roman legion has about 5,000 people. It only needs 40-50 ballistas, and the share is less than 1%. The firing speed of the ballista is very slow. Great effect. In the Battle of Kalli, the Romans were helpless against the densely packed bows and arrows of the Persians, and the ballista did not have any effect at all. The heavy ballista that fired stone bullets was quickly screened after the lever-type catapult was introduced from the east. Europe has never resolved the issue of bow materials. Later, Western crossbows used steel with poor storage capacity, and under 740 pounds of tension, they couldn’t even reach half the power of a composite bow, which was ten times less powerful. Therefore, our crossbow once led the world in 2000. After all, the European steel crossbow can’t even keep up with the level of our bow.
Second, the history of torsion springs
With the development of armor and the emergence of fortifications, the East developed a composite bow made of animal horns, tendons, horns, hardwood, silk and other materials. This is a leaf spring structure that combines the strengths of a variety of biological materials. , Which makes the composite bow very powerful. Foreign tests have shown that the energy of a composite bow that is ten times smaller than a steel crossbow with a pull of 740 pounds is more than twice that of a steel crossbow (this is because the energy storage rate of steel is very poor. Up to one-tenth of the data of the tendons, the steel bow itself is very heavy, and a lot of energy is consumed in the bow rather than being transferred to the arrow). Unlike the East, Greece lacks single-armed crossbows. The so-called Greek belly bow has no basis to prove its existence except for a person’s dictation in history. According to Hero’s description, the belly bow is a bow body made of horns, powerful and oriental crossbow. In contrast, the ballistas created by Dionysus’ craftsmen first used torsion springs, that is, using the torsion generated by two tensioned horsehairs, leather ropes or animal tendons as power to drive the crossbow arm to drive the bowstring to project projectiles. Or Arrow Stone. The ballista designed by the Greeks has a solid support. The main beam is placed on the support. Two torsion spring groups are installed on both sides of the front end. Each spring group drives a crossbow arm. The end of the crossbow arm is connected to the bowstring. Woven mesh bag containing projectiles.
Three, the application of torsion spring
Modern torsion springs and torsion bars are mostly made of steel with excellent elasticity, and the form has also changed greatly. There are hairsprings in mechanical watches, power springs in toy gyro guns, and torsion bars in tanks and cars. The torsion bar is small in size and has a large torsion force, so it could not be better as a shock absorber for transportation vehicles.
