The term air suspension has only appeared in recent years. I originally thought that people would not pay too much attention to this kind of high-tech thing, but because it has the word "suspended" in it, it will arouse strong attention from the Chinese people, so we have to talk about this configuration.
The so-called air suspension is of course also a type of suspension. It is different from the traditional independent suspension, non-independent suspension, force beam and other well-known suspensions. Because it utilizes some properties of air, it is simply called "air suspension".
Simply put, the most important feature of air suspension is the use of air springs as elastic elements in the suspension. Its biggest advantage is improved ride quality.
The principle of air suspension is that based on different road conditions and signals from distance sensors, the driving computer will judge changes in vehicle height, thereby automatically compressing or extending the springs, thereby reducing or increasing the ground clearance of the chassis and increasing the stability of the vehicle body during high-speed driving. . Passivity towards sex or complex road conditions.
Compared with traditional passive suspension, air suspension consists of air springs and adjustable shock absorbers. It has the ability to adjust ride height and change damping. This is a fully active suspension. When driving in basements, going uphill, on highways, on muddy gravel roads, etc., the microwave camera scans the road ahead in time, and the driving computer continuously calculates data to adjust the ground clearance and suspension hardness to the best. Adaptability.
Air springs can be divided into three types: bladder type, membrane type and composite type according to the air bag structure.
1) When the air chamber volume is the same, the greater the number of air bags, the smaller the spring stiffness, but too many curves will result in poor lateral stability of the spring. The capsule air spring has a large effective area change rate and high spring stiffness. Therefore, auxiliary air chambers are often used to reduce spring stiffness. When the pressure is higher, the effect of increasing the auxiliary chamber volume on the spring stiffness is more obvious, but this effect decreases as the volume increases. For airbag air springs, the spring effective area change rate and auxiliary air chamber volume should be appropriately selected to obtain appropriate spring stiffness. The curvature of the capsule air spring's film changes little during the working process, and the spring has a long service life.
2) The effective area change rate of the diaphragm air spring is smaller than that of the bladder air spring, so a lower spring stiffness can be obtained without an auxiliary air chamber. It controls the effective area change rate by changing the shape and size of the piston to obtain a more ideal inverse S-shaped elastic characteristic curve. Bladder air springs are difficult to implement. In addition, from the perspective of spring sealing form, membrane air springs can achieve self-sealing, simple structure and low cost. The service life of diaphragm air springs is generally not as long as bladder air springs. At present, diaphragm air springs are widely used in automobiles.
3) From a structural point of view, the composite air spring is a type between the first two. It combines the advantages of the above two air springs. The spring stiffness is low, but the manufacturing process is complicated.
Because the structure of air suspension is relatively complex, the failure rate is also relatively high. In particular, if the air spring and shock absorber are constantly adjusted during use, it may cause the pump body to overheat and affect its service life. In addition, air springs and gaskets are also made of rubber and usually need to be replaced between 60,000 and 80,000 kilometers. Therefore, while you enjoy the comfort of air suspension, you also have to bear high maintenance costs. . But with the popularity of this technology, all this will be solved.
Air suspension devices have been used in many mid- to high-end cars, such as the Mercedes-Benz E400L high-end sedans, the Audi A6L50TFSI high-end gear, and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class high-end cars. , Rolls-Royce, etc.
There is also a DS7 that is not too expensive, takes a fashionable and affordable route, and is also equipped with air suspension.
In fact, most people have personal feelings about the softness and support of the suspension, which vary from person to person. But to be honest, air suspension is better. It can continuously scan the road ahead and automatically adjust the hardness and height of the chassis to adapt to different road conditions. It is said that this magic carpet levitation is very magical and very eye-catching.
In general, air suspension not only allows the car to take care of the comfort of the car, but also allows the car to have good off-road passability. The comfort and handling of the vehicle have been greatly improved. Compared with the previous independent suspension and non-independent suspension's passive adaptation to the road surface, air suspension has great intelligence and active adaptability. As consumer demand escalates, it is not ruled out that more vehicles will adopt air suspension in the future. The premise is increasingly mature smart technology, better and better materials and processes, and lower and lower costs.