A flat spring for firearm magazines comprising:
- a one-piece unitary spring body having first and second opposite end half-coils at opposite ends of the unitary spring body and a plurality of interior coils in a repeating arrangement between the first and second end half-coils, and the unitary spring body formed in an accordion configuration;
- each of the plurality of interior coils including an upper half-coil and a lower half-coil;
- a plurality of first outer tips at a junction of the upper half-coil and the lower half-coil of each of the plurality of interior coils;
- a plurality of second outer tips at a junction of the upper half-coil and the lower half-coil of adjacent ones of the plurality of interior coils and also at a junction of the upper half-coil of an uppermost one of the plurality of interior coils and the first end half-coil and at a junction of the lower half-coil of a lowermost one of the plurality of interior coils and the second end half-coil;
- the plurality of first outer tips are arranged along one side of the unitary spring body and the plurality of second outer tips are arranged along an opposite side of the unitary spring body;
- each of the plurality of upper and lower half-coils including a first portion having an arc shape and a second portion having an opposing arc shape, and the combined first and second portions spanning from one of the plurality of first outer tips to one of the plurality of second outer tips to define a length of each of the upper and lower half-coils, and the first and second end half-coils each having a single arc shape extending from one of the plurality of first or second outer tips to a terminal end to define a length of each of the first and second end half-coils;
- the first and second end half-coils and the upper and lower half-coils each having a width measured between opposite side edges;
- the unitary spring body being operable between a relaxed state defining a free spring length wherein the plurality of first outer tips are spaced apart from one another and the plurality of second outer tips are spaced apart from one another, and a fully compressed state defining a minimum height of the unitary spring body wherein the first end half-coil, the second end half-coil and the upper and lower half-coils of each of the plurality of interior coils are all collapsed in a stacked arrangement and the arc shapes of the first and second portions of the upper and lower half-coils and the arc shapes of the first and second end half-coils are all flattened to generate spring energy that is urging the unitary spring body back to the relaxed state;
- and
- each of the upper half-coils having a first length and each of the lower half-coils having a second length that is different from the first length of each of the upper half-coils, so that when the spring is in the fully compressed state, the plurality of first outer tips and the plurality of second outer tips are arranged at a slanted angle relative to the first and second end half-coils at a top and bottom of the stacked arrangement to achieve a slanted compressed spring stacked arrangement.