Do you know about car suspension?

Suspension is an important assembly in the car, which resiliently links the frame with the wheels and is related to the various performance of the car. From the appearance, the car suspension is only composed of some rods, cylinders and springs, but do not think that it is very simple, on the contrary, the car suspension is a car assembly that is difficult to achieve the perfect requirements, this is because the suspension must meet the comfort requirements of the car, but also to meet its handling stability requirements, and these two aspects are opposed to each other. For example, in order to achieve good comfort, it is necessary to greatly buffer the vibration of the car, so that the spring should be designed to be softer, but the soft spring is easy to make the car brake "nod", accelerate "head up" and the bad tendency of serious left and right tilt, which is not conducive to the steering of the car and easily leads to unstable car operation.

Most of the suspension has a coil spring and shock absorber structure, but the guide mechanism of different types of suspension is very different, which is also the core component of the suspension performance difference. According to the different structures, it can be divided into two types: non-independent suspension and independent suspension.

Although the components of the suspension are simple, the determination of parameters is quite complex, and the manufacturer must not only consider the comfort of the car, but also consider the cost of the stability of the car. Different manufacturers have different tendency strategies based on these three problems. There are five kinds of suspension that are now more common: McPherson independent suspension, double wishbone independent suspension, single longitudinal arm torsion beam non-independent suspension, connecting rod pillar independent suspension, and multi-link independent suspension.

Independent suspension

The independent suspension system is that the wheels on each side are individually suspended under the frame or body by means of an elastic suspension system. Its advantages are: light weight, reducing the impact on the body and improving the ground adhesion of the wheels; Soft springs with low stiffness can be used to improve the comfort of the car; The engine position can be reduced, and the center of gravity of the car can also be reduced, thereby improving the driving stability of the car; The left and right wheels jump independently, independent of each other, which can reduce the tilt and vibration of the body. However, the independent suspension system has the disadvantages of complex structure, high cost and inconvenient maintenance, and because of the complex structure, it will encroach on some of the riding space in the car.

Nowadays, most passenger cars use independent suspension systems, according to their different structural forms, independent suspension systems can be divided into MacPherson type, cross-arm type, double wishbone type, multi-link suspension system and so on.

Non-standalone suspension

The construction of the non-independent suspension system is characterized by the two wheels connected by a single integral frame, and the wheels, together with the axle, are suspended under the frame or body by means of an elastic suspension system.   

The non-independent suspension system has the advantages of simple structure, low cost, high strength, easy maintenance, and small change in front wheel positioning in the car, but because its comfort and handling stability are relatively poor, only models with strict cost control will be used in modern cars, and more for trucks and buses.