Applications for Commercial Vehicle Air Springs
Phoenix Air Springs
Truck air suspension
Nowadays, heavy range trucks in particular (> 16 t) are equipped with air springs as a matter of course. Increasingly, however, manufacturers are also equipping even medium range trucks (7.5 – 16 t) with air springs. The air springs are designed for a wide variety of applications on the front, rear and trailing axle, as well as on the leading axle of semi trailer trucks.
Air suspension systems in buses
Some 50 years ago, it was determined that air springs could be used to enhance comfort in buses, and were thus put into standard production. Nowadays, almost 100% of buses in Europe are equipped with air springs. In this case, the air springs not only ensure a high level of ride comfort but also a constant vehicle height. Furthermore, they are offering the opportunity of lowering the bus when passengers are boarding or deboarding. This generally involves fitting two air springs to the front axle and four to the rear axle.
Modern trailers/semi trailers
Trailers and semi trailers are now almost exclusively equipped with air suspension in order to protect the cargo and the vehicle’s body as well as to guarantee safe driving characteristics. It is now also common knowledge that semi trailers with air suspension do much less damage to roads than trailers with steel suspension do. Usually, each axle assembly has two air springs behind the axle. For multi-axle combinations, one axle is frequently provided with a lifting device to protect the tires on empty runs (lifting axle).