A spring is an elastic

Elasticity (physics)

In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material that returns to its original shape after the stress that made it deform or distort is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain....

 object used to store mechanical energy

Energy

In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

. Springs are usually made out of spring steel

Spring steel

Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel or high carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.-Grades:...

. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed

Annealing (metallurgy)

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness. It is a process that produces conditions by heating to above the recrystallization temperature, maintaining a suitable temperature, and...

 steel and hardened after fabrication. Some non-ferrous metals

Ferrous

Ferrous , in chemistry, indicates a divalent iron compound , as opposed to ferric, which indicates a trivalent iron compound ....

 are also used including phosphor bronze

Phosphor bronze

Phosphor bronze is an alloy of copper with 3.5 to 10% of tin and a significant phosphorus content of up to 1%. The phosphorus is added as deoxidizing agent during melting....

 and titanium

Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....

 for parts requiring corrosion resistance and beryllium copper

Beryllium copper

Beryllium copper , also known as copper beryllium, beryllium bronze and spring copper, is a copper alloy with 0.5—3% beryllium and sometimes with other alloying elements. Beryllium copper combines high strength with non-magnetic and non-sparking qualities. It has excellent metalworking, forming...

 for springs carrying electrical current (because of its low electrical resistance).

When a spring is compressed or stretched, the force

Force

In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...

 it exerts is proportional to its change in length.