First, the history of air suspension

Air suspension was not born in recent years. Harvey in the early 1930s, Firestone (HarverySamuelFirestone) in his friend Henry Ford (HenryFord) and Thomas. Alva. Edison (ThomasAlvaEdison) technical support, development of the air spring suspension system in the form of a column of air.

So in 1934, Harvey Firestone first used the automobile air spring in the car industry for the first time in his own company (Firestone Tire and Rubber Company). In 1938, General Motors was interested in installing an air spring suspension system on passenger cars. They worked with the Firestone Co in the first round of trials in 1944. Production of air suspension buses began in 1953, the beginning of the commercial vehicle's adoption of air suspension.

Two. Structure of air suspension

Air suspension system is usually composed of air spring, shock absorber, guiding structure, air supply unit (such as air compressor, single valve, gas road, gas storage tank, etc.), height control valve, etc.. Many brands, especially luxury cars that ride comfort, or SUV models, are equipped with or can be fitted with air suspension.

Three. Air spring

The air spring shock absorber is a kind of non-metallic spring, which is added with compressed air in the flexible sealing container, and uses the compressibility of air to realize the elastic effect. It has excellent elastic characteristics, thereby improving the vehicle's running comfort. And no matter how much the vehicle load is, it can be chosen by changing the air pressure. For example, by increasing the volume of an additional air chamber, increasing the internal volume can reduce the stiffness.

In accordance with the different containers used for compressed air, the air spring has two types of bladder and membrane type. The bladder type air spring is composed of a rubber bag with a cord and compressed air enclosed therein. The inner layer of the air bag is made of rubber with good tightness, and the outer layer is made of oil resistant rubber. A steel waist ring is enclosed between the section and the section so that the middle part does not have radial expansion and prevents friction between the two sections. The closed air bag of membrane type air spring consists of rubber diaphragm and metal parts, and produces radial expansion. In the production car, we saw mostly membrane type air springs, and in the field of modification, more application is the bladder type air spring.

Four, shock absorber

After the suspension of air suspension, shock absorber and air spring are separated and the body height adjustment by air spring, we often said "soft and hard" is responsible for the shock absorber is independent, the new Audi A6L rear suspension, shock absorber is provided by ZF company products, this CDC variable damping shock absorber with proportional valve, it can continuously control the flow of liquid in the shock absorber, damping coefficient to realize adjustment. The front suspension is the same, considering the space problem. It integrates the air spring with the CDC variable damper.