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A Belleville washer, also known as a coned-disc spring,[1] conical spring washer,[2] disc spring, Belleville spring or cupped spring washer, is a conical shell which can be loaded along its axis either statically or dynamically. A Belleville washer is a type of spring shaped like a washer. It is the shape, a cone frustum, that gives the washer its characteristic spring.
The "Belleville" name comes from the inventor Julien Belleville who in Dunkerque, France, in 1867 patented a spring design which already contained the principle of the disc spring.[1][3] The real inventor of Belleville washers is unknown.
Through the years, many profiles for disc springs have been developed. Today the most used are the profiles with or without contact flats, while some other profiles, like disc springs with trapezoidal cross-section, have lost importance.