A Volute spring is a compression spring in the form of a cone (a Volute). Under compression, the coils slide past each other, thus enabling the spring to be compressed to a very short length in comparison to what would be possible with a more conventional helix spring.
The shape of the initial spring steel (or other material) is a "V", with the ends of the V at either end of the wound spring (which forms a distorted cylinder, of wider diameter at the centre), and the bottom point of the V at the centre.
Such springs can frequently be found as a component of garden secateurs. Short posts anchored in each side of the handles, and inserted into each narrow end of the spring, retains the spring in position.
Famous quotes containing the word spring:
“For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)