First, the spring wire is fed into a mechanical spring machine. This semi-automatic machine first pulls the wire straight from the spool in which it arrived, resetting it to a standard straight line. From there, the machine rolls, forms, or bends the spring wire into the desired shape. These processes are described in more detail below:

• Coiling: This process uses a spring coiler or computer numerical control (CNC) spring coiler machine. The technician operating the machine sets it to prepare it for the specific type of coil being made and feeds the wire into a set of rollers, which pull the spring wire to a series of guides. Eventually, the guides direct the wire to a coiling point or series of coiling points, which roll the wire backward to form a spring. This type of mechanism forms compression, tension, and torsion springs.
• Forming: This is done using a wire former or CNC wire former. In this type of machine, there are six to eight tool slides on the front, which allow it to perform various types of bends and shapes in addition to the spring coil. As a result, this process can create a series of spring shapes. Spring formers are often used to make tension springs, torsion springs, wire forms, and sometimes compression springs.
• Bending: Wire bending uses a CNC wire bender, a mechanical wire bending machine controlled by a computer. The machine works by feeding the wire into a set of rollers, which pull the wire to wire guides and push it to a movable tool head controlled by the computer. The tool head performs various bends and shapes. The wire bender is usually used to make wire forms.