In-house manufacturing can offer flexibility and control—but when it comes to spring coiling, it often creates more problems than it solves.
From equipment costs and quality issues to delays and missed tolerances, trying to produce your own springs can quickly become a drain on resources.
This article breaks down ten reasons why in-house spring manufacturing is rarely the right choice. If your production team is debating whether to build or buy springs, these insights will help you avoid costly missteps and understand why partnering with a dedicated spring manufacturer typically leads to better results.
1. Lack of Specialized Equipment
Spring coiling requires far more than a basic machine and a spool of wire. Precision manufacturing demands CNC coiling systems, proper mandrels, heat treatment ovens, and testing equipment—all of which carry high acquisition and maintenance costs. For many companies, the return on this investment never materializes.
Discovering the Limits of Entry-Level Equipment:
A production team invested in a low-end coiler hoping to handle small spring runs internally. They quickly discovered it lacked the precision needed for consistent results. After weeks of machine setup and rejected parts, the team scrapped the effort and returned to their core production responsibilities.
2. No In-House Spring Design Expertise
Spring performance is affected by more than just dimensions. It takes expert knowledge of stress loads, material behavior, and design-to-function relationships. Without that insight, in-house teams often end up with designs that fail during testing or perform poorly in real-world use.
Design assistance can dramatically reduce development cycles and ensure spring function matches product requirements. One of the more critical needs that design engineers provide is life cycle expectations, based on the corrected stresses of a spring design.
Spring Design That Couldn’t Withstand Repeated Use:
An internal engineering team used a calculator to design a spring for a latching system. The prototype worked—briefly. After repeated use, the spring began to deform and lose force. The issue stemmed from incorrect spring index and load calculations, which weren’t obvious until failure occurred.
3. Higher Costs per Unit
The assumption that doing things in-house is cheaper doesn’t hold up when it comes to springs. Materials are more expensive in small quantities, setup times are longer, and labor is usually diverted from more valuable work. Spring makers carry hundreds of material sizes in stock, ready available for prototype scenarios.
Spring products like compression springs, extension springs, and wire forms are more affordable when sourced through specialized production.
Paying Four Times More for the Same Part:
A small team found that their internally made springs were costing nearly four times more per unit than professionally manufactured options. Factoring in scrap, rework, and labor, the decision to build rather than buy resulted in higher costs and lower consistency.
4. Time-Consuming Setup and Rework
Spring coiling isn’t plug-and-play. Machine calibration, material feeding, and winding programs must be tailored to each design. Even experienced teams often spend hours troubleshooting new setups—only to end up with batches that fall outside of spec.
Losing Three Days and Still No Working Spring:
A fabrication shop attempted to produce a custom spring for an assembly fixture. After three full days of adjustments and two batches of non-functional parts, they realized the time investment outweighed any savings. Their internal project schedule took a hit, delaying delivery to their client.
5. Inconsistent Quality
Without formal quality assurance protocols, spring output can vary from one part to the next. Even slight inconsistencies in wire tension or coil count can cause downstream issues—like assembly failures, mechanical binding, or premature fatigue.
Industries like aerospace, medical, automotive and racing demand spring consistency to meet strict performance and safety standards.
Looked the Same, Performed Differently:
A batch of torsion springs was hand-wound in-house. Though they appeared visually identical, torque output varied drastically. The inconsistency resulted in field test failures and forced the team to discard an entire batch.
6. Limited Material Access
High-performance alloys aren’t readily available in small quantities, and many vendors have minimum order requirements. If your project calls for stainless steel, Inconel, or nickel-based wire, lead times and prices can spike quickly without direct supplier access.
Access to a wide range of spring materials enables faster production and better material matching.
Sourcing Delays Stalling the Project:
One team needed corrosion-resistant 316 stainless steel wire for a prototype. Their procurement department struggled to find a supplier that would provide the small quantity needed. The delay set their prototype timeline back by nearly a month and put a key client demo at risk.
7. Compliance and Certification Challenges
Many industries require that parts meet formal certification standards, such as ISO 9001 or medical-grade documentation. Establishing compliant processes, tracking traceability, and passing audits can be costly and time-consuming for companies unfamiliar with these standards.
Western Spring’s certifications and capabilities simplify compliance for clients in regulated industries.
Missing the Mark on Documentation:
A product development team preparing for regulatory review found that their in-house spring production lacked documentation required for compliance. The absence of material traceability and testing records led to a failed submission and forced them to restart part validation from scratch.
8. Delays from Trial and Error
Without experienced spring engineers or prototyping resources, developing new spring configurations can become a long and frustrating process. Tinkering with wire gauges and coil counts eats up valuable time—and often yields mediocre results.
Short-run prototyping services can accelerate development and deliver usable results faster than internal trial-and-error.
Two Weeks of Iteration, No Working Design:
A mechanical team spent over two weeks adjusting spring prototypes for a new product hinge. Each revision brought new problems, and progress slowed as they struggled to dial in function without the right tools or experience. A process that should’ve taken days turned into weeks.
9. Lack of Finishing and Testing Capabilities
Finishing steps such as heat treatment, passivation, stress relieving, and load testing are essential for ensuring spring performance in the field. Without access to these processes in-house, even well-made springs may fail prematurely.
Skipping Surface Treatments Cost Them Later:
To save time, a team skipped heat treatment and finishing on their in-house batch of springs. During environmental testing, the parts began to corrode and deform prematurely. They later learned that stress relieving and surface protection were essential for their application. Every spring must be stress relieved at the proper temperature for the proper length of time to obtain the best fatigue life.
10. Opportunity Cost
Time spent managing spring production internally is time not spent improving your product, developing features, or serving customers. What begins as a cost-saving initiative often turns into a distraction from your team’s core strengths.
Industries like industrial manufacturing benefit from staying focused on their end products—not spring mechanics.
Diverting Key Engineers and Falling Behind Schedule:
Engineers were pulled off a product redesign to troubleshoot spring tolerances and output issues. While they sorted out machinery problems, their main product release fell behind. The unintended result: lost momentum in the market and internal tension over missed priorities.
Work With a Trusted Spring Manufacturing Partner
In-house spring manufacturing can seem practical on the surface, but in practice, it introduces more complexity, cost, and risk than most teams anticipate. It pulls focus away from your core competencies and creates problems that can be easily avoided with outside support.
Spring manufacturing is a precise discipline—one that requires the right tools, materials, and expertise. Working with a dedicated manufacturing partner ensures you get high-quality, application-ready springs without delays or surprises.
Ready to move away from internal spring headaches? Contact us to get started.
