Springs are mechanical devices that use their elastic properties to store mechanical energy. They are available in a wide variety of shapes and types, the most common being coiled into a circular helix. Springs exhibit physical properties consistent with Hooke’s Law, where the distance a spring is compressed or elongated is proportional to the force being applied to it. Proportionality is described as the particular springs “spring constant”. If a spring is compressed or elongated past its elastic limits it will cease obeying Hooke’s Law and will most likely be damaged.

Spring-loaded contacts are available to provide electrical connection between devices. An example of this is the spring terminals found in battery holders. Shield/spring fingers are a special sprung gasket soldered onto PCBs to form a conductive RF path for shielding and grounding a PCB to a chassis. Spring loading facilitates connection to devices that exhibit vibration such as chassis with attached speakers or motors. Sprung connector pins provide extra contact force to help break through oxide and dirt layers on connectors. Sprung hooks are used in instrumentation probes for attaching to the legs of devices