Air suspension applications

Engineering expertise
We work with our customers throughout the product lifecycle

We enhance comfort in sporty conditions. We offer customized solutions for the optimization of driveline and chassis applications, built on our deep expertise, many years of experience, a broad portfolio of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) technologies and an understanding of the entire vehicle system in all automotive sectors.

Strong engineering capabilities and a culture of continuous innovation. Providing innovative NVH solutions for current and future sporty concepts of automotive customers. Focusing on automotive NVH challenges makes us the preferred partner of the industry.

We use state-of-the-art processes, tools and materials from preliminary design to series production.

We can help customers evaluate the NVH performance of their vehicles based on our experience and collected data. In addition to this, we support customers in translating system goals into components. We provide comfort airbags without changing the DNA of each specific vehicle. Always providing excellent customized NVH solutions for driveline and chassis applications, adding comfort to sportiness.

Production expertise
Ensuring cost-effective and high-quality solutions

We pursue a culture of continuous improvement to meet customer expectations in terms of quality, efficiency and reliability. Our desire is to manufacture and deliver high-quality products to all customers around the world. As we constantly strive for improvement, we develop and adapt production methods to further reduce manufacturing time and make products more market-effective.

Lean production, commitment to quality and reliable delivery
The operational excellence framework is based on our values, focus on standards, culture of continuous improvement, people empowerment and lean management.

Quality is embedded in operations through standardized work processes, defined tests and quality assurance activities to ensure that products fully meet customer needs.

Adopt closed-loop processes. In addition, we provide VPS training to continuously improve the productivity of our manufacturing chain. Our supply chain management ensures that the supplied parts, products, systems or services meet the agreed quality levels stipulated by our specifications.

We use performance indicators to measure our delivery of reliable and consistent products to ensure that we continuously meet customer requirements.

Therefore, we rely on continuous improvement of product design, supplier quality, manufacturing processes, quality assurance methods and methods. This includes planning and management of the entire operational supply chain from suppliers, production and final shipment to customers. The supply chain includes: material ordering, production planning, customer service, warehousing, inventory management, production line supply, packaging, transportation and just-in-time delivery.

Our goal: to provide customers with products that make driving more comfortable, efficient, high-quality and reliable.

Experience
We invest more than the industry average in research and development. Our innovation projects involve NVH applications for current and future mobility. New products, projects and materials are designed to further improve passenger comfort, improve vehicle efficiency and reduce operating costs for customers.

We have an engineering center dedicated to advanced engineering, application teams, product engineering, material development and process engineering to ensure the best solutions for our automotive customers now and in the future.

How we develop
From initial design to series production and beyond

We take a holistic approach and work closely with our customers’ engineering departments at every stage of the development process. We rely on our deep expertise, many years of experience and our open test benches.

Our test equipment includes four-column exciters, roller test benches in anechoic chambers, shaft test benches and measurement technology.

Testing experience
We are able to perform acoustic analysis experiments and virtual vibration performance analysis at the vehicle, subsystem or component level. The goal is to resolve conflicts and optimize NVH performance without affecting vehicle handling performance. On our four-post shakers and acoustic roller test rigs, we analyze and optimize the impact of their components on NVH performance. To do this, we consider parameters such as seat and frame vibrations, displacement or operating deflection shapes. With our four-post shakers, we can vertically excite each wheel or a combination of wheels to correlate vehicle performance with our simulation models.

Tests on our acoustic roller test rigs help us identify emissions from electric and conventional motors and drive shafts as well as interior noise sources.

On our axle test rigs, we analyze, optimize and benchmark component functions within axle subsystems and determine multiple system stiffnesses. We analyze the free vibrations of the axle as well as the effects of, for example, breakaway and wheel imbalance to understand the longitudinal and vertical forces and their effects.

Transforming specifications into perfect NVH solutions
Once the specifications and requirements, such as installation space, service life, mounting points, static and dynamic loads, driving characteristics and the DNA of each specific vehicle, have been determined, we develop the component design through computer-aided engineering.

Finite element analysis enables us to reduce the number of physical prototypes and experimental analyses because we can optimize components during the design phase. We rely on many years of automotive NVH experience, as well as our specific prediction tools and global templates for CAD drawings.

For the overall physical and chemical properties of the component structure and our deep expertise in materials science. We know how to find the perfect blend of natural and synthetic polymers to address our customers’ specific NVH requirements in terms of durability and dynamic hardening. Whether elastomers, two-component materials, temperature-resistant ethylene propylene diene monomer EPDM or microcellular polyurethane [MCU], we offer reliable materials to reduce noise, vibration and harshness.

Our bladder products are developed in advance based on future NVH market trends, process-safe and suitable for series production. Our bladder materials are tested in the laboratory for rheological properties, reaction kinetics and industrial scale-up. We are the preferred partner when it comes to providing practical experience in the right material mix and the relevant processes, such as vulcanization properties, adhesive properties, rubber and silicone injection behavior.

We use our standardized processes and state-of-the-art testing facilities to thoroughly verify the characteristics of the components in experimental analysis. For example, we perform multiaxial tests to check the static and dynamic properties in all relevant directions. We perform several in-house tests on our prototypes, such as static tests, dynamic analysis on high-frequency testing machines, stress tests on rubber Shore hardness or the influence of chemical stress factors such as oil and ozone, and durability tests. The need to address realistic environments in our tests ensures correct re-measurements and precise updating of parameters. Our tests and simulations guarantee the best design and performance of NVH components.

Production Process
Meeting Customer Needs

We are the preferred partner when it comes to providing know-how for the right material mix and its associated processes, such as vulcanization, bonding properties, rubber, silicone and plastic injection as well as welding and assembly processes. In addition to standard industry processes, Eurasia Air Springs has adapted and further developed various innovative production processes for the individual needs of our customers, including:

1. Vulcanization

Vulcanization is based on the chemical reaction of rubber to temperature and is a prerequisite for giving rubber the desired NVH – mainly stiffness and damping – performance characteristics. For a perfect result, the most important factor is the perfect combination of temperature, pressure and time.

2. Double Rubber Process

The product is specially designed to combine the advantages of two different rubber materials. These products are produced in a special vulcanizing press equipped with two rubber injection units. Using a multi-cavity vulcanizing mold and a unique cold runner, the two rubber materials are injected into specific areas of different cavities. During the subsequent vulcanization process, both materials change from being predominantly viscous to being predominantly elastic at the same time. In addition, both rubber materials are bonded to the required reinforcements, such as metal or plastic components.

Material expertise
Mix and match: the right material recipe for every NVH challenge
Our deep expertise in materials enables us to offer customized NVH solutions that ensure high comfort and dynamic vehicle performance. Elastomers are essential for solving NVH challenges, as they can deform significantly under load and return to their original shape after release. We find a solution for every application, even critical ones. We offer a broad material range from products (good price/performance ratio) to materials for NVH challenges (special blends), with new materials being developed continuously.

Natural rubber:

Elastomers made from natural rubber, which can deform significantly under load and return to their original shape after release, are an important part of many NVH solutions.

Synthetic rubber: EPDM for high temperatures

More temperature-resistant synthetic rubbers, such as ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), are key to certain NVH solutions. Due to its temperature stability, damping properties and durability, EPDM is used in split pulleys, exhaust hangers, nylons and center bearing supports for light vehicles, and motor mounts for commercial vehicles. While some heat-resistant materials have lower dynamic strength than natural rubber, Eurasian Air Springs has developed a new generation of high-strength EPDM that uses nanotechnology to combine dynamic strength and higher heat resistance.

Neoprene: A multi-resistance talent

Air springs are special in terms of material science. The spring movement is generated by the expansion of a bellows connected to a metal piston. The bellows must expand gently, but changes in air pressure can affect the size of the bellows. We achieve dimensional stability through long-fiber fabrics. For long-term reliable operation of air springs, good adhesion between the fiber and the elastomeric compound is essential. The bellows are repeatedly expanded and retracted, flexural fatigue resistance, wear resistance, air tightness, heat resistance and ozone resistance. Neoprene is the best solution.

New generation suspension systems offer high comfort at low cost

In order to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the industry relies on downsizing, cylinder deactivation and higher combustion pressures in combustion engines. However, this leads to more engine vibrations due to longer ignition intervals. It is therefore not always possible to eliminate these types of disturbances.

Active motor mount systems use specially generated compensating movements to neutralize incoming engine vibrations. The basic principle is to neutralize incoming sinusoidal vibrations by applying electrically generated compensating movements. These compensating movements are set at the same frequency. The proper setting of the phase position prevents vibrations from being transmitted to the chassis and felt in the cabin, which ultimately increases driving comfort for the passengers.

Active motor mount systems consist of hydraulic motor mounts, actuators, analog acceleration sensors and electronic control units (ECUs). The acceleration sensors measure the excitation from the engine, and the ECU calculates the required compensating movements in real time and sends them to the actuators in the active hydraulic mounts to eliminate the incoming vibrations.

As an expert in air suspension in the automotive industry, Eurasia Air Springs is able to develop vibration-absorbing airbags, including specialized simulation tools and components.

Products for Light Vehicles
Air springs keep the vehicle at a constant level, no matter how heavy the load is. They allow the car to be lowered at high speeds to improve aerodynamics and thus increase range. Air springs can also optimize airflow under the car, are used for passive battery cooling in electric vehicles, and protect the battery in harsh road conditions, always ensuring minimum ground clearance. In addition, switchable air springs can provide different degrees of stiffness, allowing a quick switch between a firm suspension for free and safe driving behavior, and a more comfortable setting. Eurasian Air Springs supplies air springs for most light vehicles with air suspension systems, making us one of the world’s leading air spring manufacturers.

Our products and technologies can be supplied either alone or in combination with dampers. The Eurasian Air Springs portfolio includes front and rear axle air springs and switchable multi-chamber air springs. Our comprehensive knowledge of air springs makes us a reliable and trusted supplier of components and modules for a wide range of air spring applications.

The key element in light vehicle air springs is the rubber bellows, also known as “skins”, which essentially determine comfort and service life. Eurasia Air Springs offers three different types of bellows – axial, cross-laminated, and cross-laminated. They differ in the structure of the reinforcing fibers in which they are embedded.

In the bushing, the fibers embedded in the elastomer extend axially in the bending direction. The cross-laminated bellows have two layers of reinforcing elements, placed at an angle to each other. Unlike fabrics, these elements are not connected. The cross-axial bellows, combine the torsional decoupling capabilities of the bushing with the dimensional stability of the cross-laminated bellows.

The bushing can be used flexibly and can be combined with various air spring technologies. The non-pressurized top mounting provides the best stiffness performance, while the one-piece curved aluminum piston provides maximum air volume and comfort.

Air springs with bushing technology offer the best comfort and are mainly used on the front axle. The extremely thin air spring bushing in combination with the axially extending fiber reinforcement results in very low friction levels.

Chassis mounts
All bushings are designed to absorb loads caused by road excitation from multiple directions. The stiffness and damping of the bushing are essential to maximize the vehicle’s road holding, ride and handling. The bushings must therefore be precisely matched to the entire suspension system.

Slight vibrations can create an unpleasant driving experience – severe vibrations can lead to steering disturbances and body vibrations, which can pose a serious safety risk.

Dampers and decoupling systems

Mass dampers are ideal for use in applications where vibrations need to be balanced with opposing inertial forces. In these configurations, an additional spring-mass system with the same frequency but opposite amplitude acts on the vibrating structure, effectively cancelling its vibrations. The way mass dampers work means they can be used in a variety of scenarios: drivetrains, steering wheels and even entire convertibles are some of the applications that make use of this indispensable system to prevent noise vibration and harshness issues.

Driveline

The automotive industry needs to meet the growing demand for lighter vehicles while integrating new components such as hybrid drives. As a result, the space available for springs and isolating elements in vehicles becomes smaller.

Torsional vibration dampers