Why do you need a car's front suspension?

The suspension of the car, or as it is called in the circles of professionals, the "suspension system", is an important connecting element between the car body and the road. In the modern automobile industry, there are two types: dependent and independent suspension. In turn, the system itself stabilizes the vehicle's front suspension and rear suspension.

First, let's look at the car suspension device itself. In this important mechanical node can be identified the main components. Firstly, these are the elastic elements necessary to perceive and transmit the normal reaction force of the road when the irregularities are hit. Secondly - the guiding elements that determine the nature of the movement of the wheels and the relationship between them. And, of course, shock absorbers, which serve to soften the vibrations of the carrier part of the car. Often, all these elements can be represented in one common mechanism, which will perform all of the above functions. But in the modern automotive industry, engineers are trying to allocate for each function performed their part, in order to distribute the total load evenly among all elements of the stabilization system.

Consider the device of the front suspension. Since ancient times, the main task of the car suspension is to soften and, as a result, increase the smoothness of the vehicle on the road. At the same time, the development of stabilization systems begins with the development of a rear suspension, since the rear wheels are in a static position. Develop a design that softens the car, it was easier. The front suspension is much more complicated, since the wheels are in a dynamic position relative to the body, and in addition to softening the ride, it is necessary to realize the main function of the front wheels - turn.

Also, the front stabilization elements bear a heavy load, since it is in the front of the car that the main components such as the engine, the transfer gearbox, the bridge in the case of a front-wheel-drive vehicle are concentrated. The front suspension, as well as the rear suspension, in most cases has a structure in which the main element is the shock absorber strut. This suspension system is called the McPherson suspension. Although in the case of sports cars where the engine is located at the rear of the vehicle, the torsion spring is used in the front suspension device instead of the springs, which in turn is a long shaft with low torsional stiffness, or in the form of several parallel-connected shafts in parallel.

In the modern automobile industry, an independent stabilization system is used in the front suspension device, in which the wheels located on one axis of the vehicle do not have a hard impact on each other, i.e. The position of one wheel does not affect the position of the other when driving the car. The front suspension of such an organization appeared relatively later dependent, as it required a radical change in the design of the stabilization elements and the addition of the suspension components to the application parts.

As for the advantages and disadvantages of dependent and independent suspension, it is not worthwhile to compare these two types of stabilization. These suspensions are installed on cars depending on the tasks assigned to the vehicle. In different conditions, each category of suspension will perform its functions differently in order to achieve the overall goal - to soften the car's progress and, as a result, to safely move the vehicle along the road surface.