Daimler Chrysler Ag

Mercedes-Benz Aktiengesellschaft

Matthias Romer

Hans Scheerer

Thomas Sprengel

Frank Schweickhardt

In a process for controlling the quantity of air in a closed, chargeable and estimable pneumatic level control system of a vehicle, which level control system comprises at least one pressure sensor, one pump, an actuator, a storage reservoir and pressure lines interconnecting these components, at least one vehicle body level sensor, and a temperature sensor, which measures the ambient temperature, from the values measured an air mass of the level control system is calculated on the basis of the air pressures in the components, the level of the vehicle and the ambient temperature. Furthermore, the level of the vehicle, the ambient temperature and a maximum possible change in level from a particular vehicle level are used to calculate a vehicle-specific desired air mass and a desired air pressure in the system. The air mass is increased if the actual air pressure drops below the desired air pressure, and the air mass is reduced if the actual air pressure exceeds the desired air pressure.

Method of controlling the quantity of air in a vehicle level control system

In an air spring strut for a wheel suspension of a motor vehicle including an air spring head to be mounted to a vehicle body, a shock absorber having a piston rod resiliently supported in the air spring head and a cylinder receiving the piston rod with a damper piston, a tubular air spring piston mounted to the cylinder and extending therefrom into a cylindrical extension of the air spring head and a rolling sleeve bellows connected to the air spring piston and the cylindrical extension, the air spring piston is connected to the shock absorber cylinder elastically and has at its opposite end a slide structure disposed around a guide structure extending from the air spring head for slideably supporting the end of the tubular air spring piston to prevent adjacent wall portions of the rolling sleeve bellows from contacting each other.

Air spring strut for motor vehicle wheel suspensions

An air-spring leg is disclosed having a telescopic element preferably in the form of a shock absorber and having an air chamber of variable volume which is combined with said telescopic element. A casing part is connected for wobbling movement to the cylinder of the telescopic element and also another casing part is provided capable of wobbling movement relative to the piston or piston rod of the telescopic element. A bellows is arranged between these casing parts.

Air-spring leg

In air-spring legs with a pressure chamber in each case for motor vehicles, in which the respective pressure chamber can be subjected to different pressures via a connector leading to the outside, a minimum pressure is to be ensured in the respective pressure chamber irrespective of external influences. This minimum pressure is also to be present in the case of a demounted or not yet mounted spring leg in the pressure chamber thereof. For this purpose, the connector of the pressure chamber of the air-spring leg has in each case an automatically operating pressure relief valve which can be designed to maintain a minimum pressure which can be predetermined for the chamber, and by means of which pressure relief valve the connector is open at a pressure which is acting from the interior of the pressure chamber or from the outside and is above the minimum pressure and, at a pressure below it, is closed. The closure element of the pressure relief valve is, in particular, a tubular elastomer which is pulled onto a cylindrical basic body and by means of which bores running through the basic body are separated from one another or connected to one another in terms of flow.

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Altdorf, Germany

Matthias Romer