We, those born in the 1980s, have experienced the entire electronic era. From its initial popularity to its brilliance, it only took a few decades. Relatively speaking, the electronic products in our lives came faster, but because of the automobile Due to the need to balance durability, it took about ten years to reach the general public's B-class cars. In fact, many technologies that seem to be high-end now were changed from the hydraulic era, such as this "magic carpet" 60 years ago. suspension". ?
For Mercedes-Benz S, Audi A8L, and BMW 7 Series, air suspension is still a wealthy-level equipment, but 60 years ago, the French with their bright minds had already implemented it on DS19 and DS20. From today's perspective, Peugeot, Citro?n, and DS seem to have only their designs to retain their image, but after traveling through time and space, the creative works of the French once called Rolls-Royce its big brother. ?
The first-generation Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, friends from Guangdong should know that Zheng Shaoqiu and Guan Haishan in "Laughing at the Wind and Cloud" and "Heaven and Earth Man" sat in this car, but they are probably sitting in it The wealthy people don’t know that what helps them filter vibrations and improve vehicle comfort is actually a set of hydraulic active suspension from DS. The thing is, before launching Silver Shadow, they worked hard to find a breakthrough. In terms of suspension, they directly bought the patent for active hydraulic suspension from Citro?n to replace the previous integral axle suspension. ?
The enlightenment of magic carpet suspension is blinding. First of all, there is a pull rod in the car that can adjust the height of the vehicle body by itself. Different positions show different heights, just like the current air suspension is operated by buttons, but through Hydraulics realize active shock absorption function, but the structure is extremely complex. ?
The shock filtering mechanism composed of springs and shock absorbers consists of a strange hydraulic damping system, one for each of the four vehicles. Its "brain" is located at the front of the vehicle. In addition to the fluid storage tank, There is an engine belt hydraulic pump device, which serves as the brain for dynamic compensation when the body is raised, lowered, and vibrated, and is a concept similar to the ECU of modern air suspension. ?
Before the ECU can control it, a sensor must be used to inform it. But 60 years ago, the sensor was the mechanical valve in the shock absorber. The up and down movement of the valve was determined by the beating of the swing arm, whether to introduce or return flow. The oil prompts the shock-absorbing system to exert force in the opposite direction of the swing arm, thereby realizing the function of automatic suspension. Its concept and effect are the current magic carpet suspension. Of course, the control accuracy and speed of suspension response are not as good as electronic ones, and it cannot detect road conditions in advance. It is different from what we call active suspension now, but it does not hinder the creation of a new chapter in automobile suspension systems, which belongs to that era. "alien technology". ?
This kind of suspension will gradually be eliminated in the future. The reason is very simple. The failure rate is high and the structure is complicated. If it breaks, no one will repair it, and the price is sky-high. Today, active suspension has become increasingly homogeneous, but as its originator, DS still has advantages. For example, it is cheap. The top-spec DS7 has a guide price of 320,000, and it is quite impressive. ?
The module consists of 1 camera, 4 fine-tuning sensors and 3 accelerators. The camera is used to analyze and scan the real-time road conditions from 5 meters to 20 meters ahead, and the fine-tuning sensors and accelerometers are used to provide Positioning and instantaneous dynamics, the softness and hardness of the suspension are adjusted according to these signals. It’s cheap for a reason. The shock absorbers are still different from the air suspension of BMW and Mercedes-Benz. They still insist on using hydraulic shock absorbers, but they use the MCU to adjust the battery valve inside to control the oil pressure and complete the vehicle suspension within 15 milliseconds. Adjustment. Recently, the news about the domestic production of DS9 is also very hot, and the suspension form is estimated to be not much different from that of DS7. ?
Sixty years ago, DS built a shock-absorbing system that even Rolls-Royce was envious of. It was Citro?n in its prime. Sixty years later, the French car represented by PSA has lost its glory. Even the DS, which is positioned as a luxury model, is far from the German model, but it is this characteristic of not following the trend that makes the auto market with such serious homogeneity more topics. At the same time, I admire them very much. When the sales are so poor, they can still do it. Have this persistence and perseverance.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.