Inherently effectively damped coiled spring

Claim 1

An improved inherently effectively damped coiled spring construction, comprising: (a) a first coiled spring having a pair of ends and a plurality of coils, the two ends of which are adapted to operably bear a load; (b) a second coiled spring having essentially the same coil diameter as the first spring and further having a pair of ends and a plurality of coils, said second coiled spring being in the form of at least one tubular spring, the coils of the tubular spring being concentrically disposed about each of the coils of the body of the coils of the first coiled spring in operable intimate frictional engagement therewith, the second coiled spring being shorter in length than the body of the first coiled spring so that the ends of the second coiled spring are not contiguous with the ends of the first coiled spring and are free of contact with the load imposed on the ends of the first springs so that when the first spring is dynamically compressed or expanded, relative twisting movement between the coils of the springs does not occur, but only occurs immediately following the yielding of the static frictional engagement which exists along essentially the entire faying surface between the two springs, whereby the second spring disengages from further twisting movement of the temporarily deformed coils of the first spring, thereby creating an effective friction generating and energy dissipating device and damping the relative axial movement of the combination formed by the first and second springs.