The Utmost in Comfort – Secondary Suspension Systems
The air suspension in modern chassis is a combination of finely tuned assemblies: the air spring bellows and the rubber-metal bearer spring, which supports the system especially when there is torsional strain and large horizontal excursions. It also absorbs a portion of the vertical deflection and reacts as an emergency spring.
ContiTech and Phoenix air spring systems play a key role in the secondary suspension. It’s all a matter of the air: air springs have a low natural frequency, which minimizes the transmission of vibrations. Another advantage is the constant leveling function which maintains the vehicle body at a consistent height – regardless whether it is full of passengers or empty. And with the pneumatic height control, the train car exits can be adapted precisely to the height of the station platform.
An outstanding feature of the system is the combination of the rubber-metal auxiliary spring integrated in the air spring. Using this technology, we can develop system configurations for a wide variety of bogies and vehicle body models. We select a type of bellows suitable for the individual application and then tailor the auxiliary spring to match it precisely. This diverse range of design possibilities covers all conceivable applications.
Advantages:
Increase in ride comfort thanks to pneumatic suspension irrespective of the load conditions
Reduction in structure-borne noise transmission from the bogie to the carbody
Adjustment of the vehicle height at different loads
Stabilisation of running dynamics
