Darmstadt, 27. February |
To resolve the issue of the conflicting objectives of comfort and driving dynamics, Vibracoustic has developed switchable air springs with a three-chamber concept. By switching individual air chambers on and off by means of intelligent controls, the air springs can be set to four different stiffness levels depending on the driving situation. This makes driving more comfortable or dynamic, as well as safer.
For the switching strategy of the valves, Vibracoustic can provide the basis and offer support to automotive manufacturers for the configuration. The switch valves can be set to either manually switchable of automatically switched depending on the application. Switchable means that the driver manually selects their desired driving mode, such as a sports or comfort mode. In contrast, switched air springs are directly involved in the driving dynamics. Switched air springs can thus reduce the rolling motion of a vehicle during cornering, for example, by switching off one or two chambers by means of the valves depending on the driving situation, and thus applying a stiff setting to the spring. Another scenario is to use a switch to reduce the pitch of the vehicle structure during braking while driving straight. The control unit takes account of longitudinal and lateral acceleration as well as the steering wheel angle, amongst other things, and in addition to the spring rate, also controls damping and vehicle level.
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The switch valves that control the flow rate also play an important role with regard to the new air springs. The engineers at Vibracoustic developed a valve that is specially tailored to the requirements of three-chamber systems. The switching times then need to be short enough to enable switching in the first place, for example. The opening also needs to be adequately sized. However, the developers also minimized switching noise using a membrane, to ensure that it is not perceptible by drivers or passengers in the vehicle. This feature can play a role in the case of electric vehicles where there is no noise or vibration from the combustion engine to cover this type of noise.
In the future, Vibracoustic will also provide switchable air springs in dual-chamber systems. While these systems can only offer two different stiffness levels, the corresponding regulation also enables effective roll stabilization. Vibracoustic thus also aims to meet customer demands for improved comfort and driving dynamics in mid-range vehicles.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Vibracoustic Air Springs.