Active hydraulic fluid vehicular suspension damper

• Main Authors: DELLINGER, DARIN DUANE, NEAL, ROBERT A, MORADMAND, JAMSHID KARGAR
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 17.12.2003
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: BLASTING; ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVEFUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; HEATING; LIGHTING; MEANS FOR DAMPING VIBRATION; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; SHOCK-ABSORBERS; SPRINGS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL; WEAPONS

A vehicular damper (10) includes a cylinder (11), a piston rod (12) in the cylinder having a hollow end defining an axial rod passage (23) and a cylindrical piston (15) affixed to the end of the rod (12) dividing the cylinder into a compression chamber (17) and a rebound chamber (18). A valve plate (20) on the rod adjacent the piston (15) has a plurality of soft channels (42) extending from an outer end at the rebound chamber (18) to an inner end at the axial rod passage (23) and a solenoid actuated cylinder in the rod passage is movable to open and close the inner ends of the soft channels. A bi-directional working disc (53) contacts with the soft channels' outer ends to provide damping in rebound and compression when the solenoid valve (29) is open. In contrast, the piston (15) has a plurality of firm rebound channels (66) and a like plurality of firm compression channels (67) extending therethrough with a uni-directional rebound working disc (80) in valve contact with the outlet of the rebound chambers and a uni-directional compression working disc (70) in valve contact with the outlet of the compression chambers. The damper provides valved parallel flow between compression and rebound chambers through the soft channels (42) and through the firm channels with independent spring rate control through the firm rebound (66) and compression (67) channels.