The characteristic of shrapnel is that it is easily bent in only one direction - the plane of small stiffness, while it has high tensile and bending stiffness in another direction. Therefore, leaf springs are suitable for use as sensitive components, elastic supports, positioning devices, flexible connections, etc. in detection instruments or automatic devices. According to the characteristics of the material, spring plates are widely used in various contact devices for actuation mechanisms applied in different environments, and the most commonly used are simple shaped cantilever plate springs. The resistance of the contact piece must be small, so it is made of bronze.

The function of the measuring spring is to convert force or displacement. If the fixed structure and load-bearing method can ensure that the working length of the spring remains unchanged, the stiffness of the leaf spring is constant in the small deformation range, and nonlinear characteristics can also be obtained if necessary, such as pressing the spring onto the limit plate or adjusting the screw to change its working length.