The basic technical solution for air suspension comprises two main components:
air springs filled with compressed air and variable-damping shock absorbers. Compared to traditional steel automotive suspension systems, air suspension offers numerous advantages. The most significant among these is the automatic adjustment of the spring's stiffness coefficient to adapt to various driving conditions. For instance, at high speeds, the suspension can stiffen to enhance body stability; during prolonged low-speed driving, the control unit automatically softens the suspension to improve damping comfort.
Furthermore, air springs also account for the acceleration generated by wheel impacts from the road surface. For example, during high-speed cornering, the air springs and shock absorbers on the outer wheels automatically stiffen to reduce body roll; during emergency braking, the electronic module increases the stiffness of the front wheel springs and shock absorbers to minimize inertial forward pitch. Consequently, vehicles equipped with air suspension offer higher handling limits and comfort.
Air suspension also incorporates traditional chassis lift technology. At high speeds, the vehicle body automatically lowers to improve ground adherence, reduce aerodynamic drag, and lower fuel consumption; when slowly traversing uneven roads, the chassis automatically raises to enhance passability. Additionally, the air suspension system can automatically maintain a constant vehicle ride height, regardless of whether the vehicle is empty or fully loaded. This ensures that the spring travel of the suspension system remains constant under any load condition, thus largely unaffected damping characteristics. Consequently, even when fully loaded, the vehicle body remains easy to control, representing a leap forward in platform technology.
