Segmented Air Spring Bellows for Directional Transverse Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air spring systems for rail vehicles face challenges in achieving directional stiffness adjustment to balance comfort and safety, particularly during transverse movements, which are exacerbated by the complexity and weight of current reinforcement methods.
Innovation Solution
The air spring features reinforced and weakened segments along its circumference, allowing for varying stiffness in different directions, enabling adjustable rigidity to counteract transverse forces while maintaining comfort and safety, with the option to visually distinguish these segments for easier installation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the air spring bellows is reinforced to increase transverse stiffness, then the car body stability is improved, but the ride comfort deteriorates due to increased rolling movements
Solution Approach 1:
The air spring bellows is divided into multiple circumferential segments with different stiffness characteristics. Reinforced segments provide higher transverse stiffness to stabilize the car body, while non-reinforced segments maintain lower stiffness to allow controlled rolling movements for ride comfort. This segmentation enables directional stiffness adjustment without uniform reinforcement throughout the bellows structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the air spring bellows are given different local properties through selective reinforcement. The reinforced circumferential segments have increased wall thickness or structural strengthening to provide higher transverse stiffness, while other segments maintain original properties for comfort. This local differentiation allows the bellows to exhibit anisotropic stiffness characteristics tailored to specific directional requirements.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the air spring bellows is made softer to improve ride comfort, then the comfort is improved, but the car body shifts significantly during cornering
Solution Approach 1:
The bellows circumference is segmented into zones with different stiffness levels. Softer non-reinforced segments maintain ride comfort by allowing gentle movements, while strategically positioned reinforced segments prevent excessive lateral shifts during cornering by providing directional support. This segmentation enables the system to exhibit both soft and stiff characteristics simultaneously in different directions.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcement pattern creates asymmetric stiffness distribution around the bellows circumference. By positioning reinforced segments at specific locations corresponding to cornering force directions, the bellows provides asymmetric support that allows comfortable vertical and longitudinal movements while resisting lateral displacement during turns, creating direction-dependent mechanical behavior.
3Force
If uniform reinforcement is applied to the air spring bellows, then the transverse stiffness is increased, but the manufacturing complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than uniformly reinforcing the entire bellows structure, only specific circumferential segments are reinforced while leaving other segments unchanged. This selective approach achieves the necessary transverse stiffness in critical areas without the manufacturing complexity and weight penalty of complete uniform reinforcement, allowing for more efficient resource allocation in the design.
Solution Approach 2:
Reinforcement is applied locally only where transverse stiffness is most needed, such as in segments that experience highest lateral forces during cornering. This local quality approach avoids the unnecessary complexity and weight of uniform reinforcement throughout the entire bellows, focusing structural enhancement only on critical zones while maintaining simplicity elsewhere.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design effectively cushions longitudinal movements while preventing excessive transverse movement, ensuring safe guidance and comfort by adjusting stiffness based on the arrangement of reinforced and weakened segments, and can be easily manufactured and adapted post-production.
Implementation Method 1
an air bellows (4) made of elastomeric material which is reinforced and/or weakened segmentally on at least one partial area of its circumference in such a way that when the air bellows (4) is sprung or deflected in a horizontal direction over the bellows circumference, the air bellows has a higher stiffness in the area of a reinforced circumferential segment than in the non-reinforced circumferential area
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to an air spring (1), wherein the air spring (1) has a working volume (2) which is limited by a rim (3), an air spring bellows (4) and a piston (5). The air spring bellows (4) is reinforced and/or weakened segmentally on at least a partial region of its circumference such that, when the air spring bellows (4) is compressed or deflected horizontally over the circumference, the stiffness of the air spring bellows (4) is higher in the region of the reinforced circumferential segment (6, 7) than in the unreinforced and/or weakened circumferential region and/or the stiffness of the air spring bellows (4) is lower in the weakened circumferential segment than in the reinforced and/or non-weakened circumferential segment (6, 7), resulting in different stiffnesses in the longitudinal direction (X) and in the transverse direction (Y).The reinforced and/or weakened circumferential segment (6, 7) is provided by a wall thickness that varies in partial areas of the circumference of the air spring bellows (4).