Discussion on the Free Quenching Heat Treatment Process of Automotive Leaf Springs

Free quenching of automotive leaf springs is a new technology that has gradually started to be applied in the industry in China in recent years.Only a few manufacturers are applying it in the industry.Through more than half a year of on-site practice,the changes in the hot forming of spring plates before free quenching have been explored,and finally a heat treatment process that meets the production requirements of our company has been developed,achieving normal production.

Design and experiment of an adaptive dynamic vibration absorber with smart leaf springs

An adaptive dynamic vibration absorber(ADVA)is designed for lowfrequency vibration suppression.The leaf springs are applied as the tuning stiffness elements.The principle of variable stiffness is analyzed to obtain the effective range of the first natural frequency variation.A classic simply supported manipulator is selected as the controlled system.The coupled dynamic model of the manipulator-ADVA system is built to obtain the maximum damping efficiency and the vibration absorption capacity of the designed ADVA.An experimental platform is set up to verify the theoretical results.It is revealed that the ADVA can adjust the first natural frequency on a large scale by changing the curvature of the leaf springs.The amplitude of the manipulator is reduced obviously with the installation of the designed ADVA.Finally,based on the short-time Fourier transformation(STFT),a stepwise optimization algorithm is proposed to achieve a quick tuning of the natural frequency of the ADVA so that it can always coincide with the frequency of the prime structure.Through the above steps,the intelligent frequency tuning of the ADVA is realized with high vibration absorption performance in a wide frequency range.

Design and Analysis of a 2-DOF Actuator with Variable Stiffness Based on Leaf Springs

Variable Stiffness Actuator(VSA)is the core mechanism to achieve physical human–robot interaction,which is an inevitable development trend in robotic.The existing variable stiffness actuators are basically single degree-of-freedom(DOF)rotating joints,which are achieving multi-DOF motion by cascades and resulting in complex robot body structures.In this paper,an integrated 2-DOF actuator with variable stiffness is proposed,which could be used for bionic wrist joints or shoulder joints.The 2-DOF motion is coupling in one universal joint,which is different from the way of single DOF actuators cascade.Based on the 2-DOF orthogonal motion generated by the spherical wrist parallel mechanism,the stiffness could be adjusted by varying the effective length of the springs,which is uniformly distributed in the variable stiffness unit.The variable stiffness principle,the model design,and theoretical analysis of the VSA are discussed in this work.The independence of adjusting the equilibrium position and stiffness of the actuator is validated by experiments.The results show that the measured actuator characteristics are sufficiently matched the theoretical values.In the future,VSA could be used in biped robot or robotic arm,ensuring the safety of human–robot interaction.

Numerical simulation and optimization of shell mould casting process for leaf spring bracket

Although the shell mould casting process has a wide range of application in many fields,the prediction of casting defects is still a problem.In the present work,a typical leaf spring bracket casting of ZG310-570 was fabricated by shell mold casting.The finite element model and ProCAST software were utilized for simulating the filling and solidification processes of the casting;and the formation mechanism of the gas pore,and shrinkage porosity defects were analyzed.The results indicate that the gas pore and shrinkage porosity defects are formed due to air entrapment,insufficient feeding and non-sequential solidification.Subsequently,through changing the position of risers,adding a connecting channel between the risers,and setting blind risers at the U-shaped brackets,an optimized gating and feeding system was established to improve the quality of the casting.After optimization,the gas pore and shrinkage porosity defects of the leaf spring bracket casting are effectively eliminated.The experiment results with the optimized casting process are in good agreement with the numerical simulation,which verifies the validity of the finite element model in the shell mould casting.

Finite element analysis on the static and fatigue characteristics of composite multi-leaf spring

This paper investigated the static and fatigue behaviors of steel and composite multi-leaf spring using the ANSYS V I 2 software. The dimensions of an existing conventional leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle were used. The same dimensions were used to design composite multi-leaf spring for the two materials, E-glass fiber/epoxy and E-glass fiber/vinyl ester, which are of great interest to the transportation industry. Main consideration was given to the effects of material composition and its fiber orientation on the static and fatigue behaviors of leaf spring. The design constraints were bending stresses, deflection and fatigue life. Compared to the steel leaf spring, the designed composite spring has much lower bending stresses and deflections and higher fatigue life cycles.

New ANCF solid-beam element:relationship with Bézier volume and application on leaf spring modeling

An eight-node solid-beam element based on absolute nodal coordinate formulation(ANCF)which uses cubic interpolation at the longitudinal direction and linear at the transverse direction is proposed.The element can accurately discretize the geometry represented by the Bézier volume with the same basis function order.The continuity property of the proposed beam element is verified.Advantages of the proposed element can be found in the application of leaf spring modeling.The parabolically varying thickness of the leaf can be accurately described.Components in leaf spring such as the spring eye and the rubber bushing can be assembled efficiently since the proposed element can be connected at any direction.The ANCF reference node is used to represent the rigid components and the revolute joints in the vehicle suspension system.Static I-shaped cross-section cantilever beam and flexible pendulum model are used to test the accuracy and dynamic performance of the proposed solid-beam element.The leaf spring model shows the flexibility of the element in modeling the complex mechanical system and the balance between the accuracy and the efficiency.

Analytical modeling and simulation on lateral mechanical characteristics of high-speed train traction motor hanging leaf spring

In this paper,using the theoretical analysis method,according to the actual structure of the hanging leaf spring of the traction motor mounted on the frame,the lateral force model of the hanging leaf spring of the traction motor was established.Then,through theoretical deduction,the deformation analytical calculation formula and the stress analytical calculation formula of the hanging leaf spring were established.The correctness of the leaf spring’s lateral force model was established and its deformation and stress analytical formulae were verified using ANSYS finite element analysis software.Based on this,according to the deformation analytical formula and the stress analytical formula of the leaf spring established,the influence of the main structural parameters on the mechanical characteristics of the leaf spring was discussed,and the reliability of the analytical analysis method of the lateral mechanical characteristics of the traction motor hanging leaf spring was verified by the loading–unloading test.The results show that the deformation and the load of the leaf spring change linearly.The changes of leaf spring’s stress at different positions can be considered as being composed of three sections:a linear change section in the root,a nonlinear change section in the middle,and a nonlinear change section in the end.In the structural parameters,the end thickness h2 has the greatest influence on the stiffness and the stress of the leaf spring,and the maximum thickness of the leaf spring eye h1 has the least influence on the stiffness and the stress of the leaf spring.The influence degree of other parameters on the stiffness of the leaf spring is h_(3),L_(1),L_(3),L_(2) in order,and the influence degree on the stress of the leaf spring is h_(3),L_(1),L_(2),L_(3) in order.In addition,when the root thickness h_(3) is greater than a certain value,the maximum stress point of the leaf spring appears at the end position L_(2).This study can provide a useful reference for the intelligent forward design and the rapid analysis of the mechanical characteristics of high-speed train traction motor hanging leaf spring.

A Design Method of Bending Deflection on Hyper-Static Leaf Spring

A group of leaf springs which provides the flexible support of stator is designed to satisfy the requirement of low vibration motor at megawatt （MW） level. Spring steel 65Mn is chosen as the material of the leaf spring. The size of the leaf spring is obtained by calculation and load analysis according to a deflection formula. The deflection and stiffness of the single leaf spring is calculated with both theoretical method and finite element analysis （FEA）. A deflection test platform is established based on actual force and boundary condition to verify the deflection and stiffness of the leaf spring. The results show that the maximal deflection of the three pieces of 1.2 mm leaf spring group is 0.71 mm and the stiffness of the leaf spring group is 364 N/mm, which satisfies the requirements of the motor. The design method is also applicable for other MW power level motors.