McPherson suspension was invented by American engineer Earl Steele McPherson (hereinafter referred to as McPherson). He was 19 the chief designer of general motors Chevrolet in 1930s, and the suspension he designed had a lasting impact on the development of automobiles for decades.
1934, GM wanted to build a car without an independent frame to reduce the body weight. At that time, without composite materials, the weight of a car could easily exceed two tons. At that time, leaf spring suspension was used for the durability of vehicle suspension. MacPherso showed great interest in this automobile project and volunteered to be the project director.
Later, McPherson moved to Ford and went to 1949. McPherson applied for a patent for McPherson suspension. 1950, Ford put the front McPherson suspension into the British market for the first time, but the rear suspension is still a steel plate suspension.
The traditional automobile suspension relies on the spiral spring to support the weight of the car body, and the shock absorber is used to reduce the bumps in the driving process of the car, thus maintaining comfort. McPherson decided to combine the spiral spring with the shock absorber and put the spiral spring outside the shock absorber. The vehicle suspension weight becomes lighter, and the inertia will also decrease at high speed. The lighter the vehicle, the faster the response speed and rebound speed, which not only saves space, but also increases the maneuverability of the vehicle.
Many suspensions, including those that appeared later, were also improved on the basis of McPherson suspension. For example, the double wishbone independent suspension is the improvement result of McPherson suspension, which avoids some shortcomings of McPherson suspension, which will be mentioned later. For another example, BMW M3' s double-joint spring strut suspension is also an improved version of McPherson suspension. It splits the original L-shaped control arm into two connecting rods, and the end of each connecting rod is connected with a steering knuckle through a ball hinge. It can be said that McPherson suspension is the "first teacher" among many suspensions.
First of all, the camber angle of the wheel (the angle at which the wheel leans outward when the ground is horizontal) is greatly influenced by the height of the suspension. On the one hand, adjusting camber can reduce steering resistance, on the other hand, it can reduce the load of bearing and its lock nut, thus prolonging service life and improving safety. So it is very important to control the camber, but with the current technology, this influence has been reduced a lot.
McPherson suspension is one of the earliest and most reliable suspensions. At present, many suspensions are based on McPherson suspension, and its structure is optimized, which not only retains the original advantages of comfort and compact structure, but also significantly improves the handling performance of the vehicle. This is a suspension that can be used for both performance cars and family cars. In the case of excellent training, McPherson suspension is not worse than other types of suspension.