Electric butterfly valve is a common configuration in luxury cars. Compared with the ordinary metal butterfly valve with a fixed elastic damping coefficient, the elastic coefficient of the electric butterfly valve not only has the ability to adjust the damping adaptively, but also can eliminate many small shocks on the road surface. Therefore, it is unknown that the improvement of vehicle driving quietness can be achieved.
The strong shock absorption ability of electric butterfly valve is due to the physical property of compressed air.
Not long after the automobile came out, its quietness was very poor, so the inventor wanted to use this property of air to make an electric butterfly valve for automobiles.
In 1901, American William W Humphreys applied for the design of his automobile valve air cushion, The air cushion of the air valve designed by him can reduce the shock transmitted to the cabin, but the suspension of the car is still a metal butterfly valve.
In the 1920s, Messier, a Frenchman, designed the early electric butterfly valve for automobiles. In 1929, TATRA Automobile Company of Czechoslovakia tried to equip the rear axle of T24 truck with an electric butterfly valve. These are early attempts. Due to the problems of manufacturing technology and raw materials, the durability of these early electric butterfly valves did not reach the practical level.
In 1946, after the end of World War II, the StoutStoutScarab experimental vehicle designed by the American inventor William Bushnell was equipped with an electric butterfly valve designed and produced by Firestone. This is a car in the world that uses an all electric butterfly valve suspension. With the development of industrial technology, the reliability of electric butterfly valve has made remarkable progress, and it is not far from practicality.
The 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham luxury car has become a mass production model equipped with an electric butterfly valve. This electric butterfly valve is also equipped with a body height sensor, which can change the setting of the air suspension when the vehicle is heavy loaded and turning to maintain the ground clearance and driving attitude of the body. However, because the sensor response speed is slow, the actual effect of active control of body balance is poor. Subsequently, the electric butterfly valve became an option for all 1958 Cadillac vehicles. In 1959, the Ambassador car produced by the American Automobile Company also adopted the electric butterfly valve. Its structure is very novel. The electric butterfly valve and the electric butterfly valve are integrated together. An air compressor is driven by the engine head to pressurize the electric butterfly valve. The body height can be changed according to the pressure change of the electric butterfly valve.
During several years of use, consumers found that although the electric butterfly valve had improved the tranquility, it did not bring a new driving experience, and the high cost of manufacturing also raised the price of vehicles. Therefore, although the electric butterfly valve had broken through the technical bottleneck, it was still considered to be commercialized earlier in the United States at that time.
In 1960, both Cadillac and American Automobile Company stopped the production of electric butterfly valve models. It was the end of 1983 when electric butterfly valve appeared again on American cars.
After the economic recovery in the 1950s, the auto industry in West Germany began to meet the pace of the United States in technological development.
In 1962, Mercedes Benz 300SE became a luxury car equipped with electric butterfly valve in Europe. The system adopts Bosch main valve (air pressure distribution). Two axle valves control the front two wheels, and one axle valve controls the rear two wheels. This design is completely different from the cone shaped electric butterfly valve of General Motors.
Then in 1964, the Daimler Benz. Class Mercedes Benz 600 was also equipped with an electric butterfly valve, which gradually became popular in Europe. After the 1980s, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Lexus and other luxury cars were equipped with electric butterfly valves. The electric butterfly valve is filled with compressed air in a sealed container, and uses the compressibility of the gas to realize its elastic function.