Ordinary cars use coil spring suspension, which reduces vibration through the elasticity of the metal itself. The airmatic suspension-uses airbags, which are filled with compressed air, using the compressibility of the air to achieve the purpose of shock absorption. At the same time has a certain rigidity, can meet the body support effect, through the airbag elasticity to reduce the bump feeling.

In the world more than 40% of trucks, trailers and systems (AIRMATIC) is popular in today’s developed countries in the automotive industry advanced products. In some countries, more than 100% of the medium-sized buses are used air tractor with air suspension system. Its biggest advantage is: not only can improve the ride comfort of the occupants, but also can play an important role in the protection of the road.

Airmatic Common Names

Airmatic is also called by many names, some of which are Air suspension,Air sus,ECAS(Electronic-Controlled Air Suspension),Air shocks,Air spring etc

Airmatic Structure　

Air suspension system generally consists of air springs, shock absorbers, guiding structures, air supply units (such as air compressors, single valves, air lines, tanks, etc.), height control valves and other components. Nowadays, many brands, especially the luxury cars that pay attention to ride comfort or SUVs that pay attention to passability, are equipped with or can be equipped with optional air suspension…

Benefits of Airmatic

Comfort and good road passing are the two main benefits of air suspension.
Because of the electronic parts, an air suspension can dampen vibrations by compressing air when encountering bumpy road conditions. Under the same vibration situation, the vibration frequency of the air bag is lower than that of metal springs, and the vibration release is smoother, ensuring maximum comfort.

Vehicle Stance

Air Suspension has chassis lift technology. Vehicles fitted with the air suspension system will adjust the chassis height according to the road surface height and the degree of bumps to ensure passability on bumpy road surfaces. When driving at high speeds or through corners, the stiffness of the airbags will be adjusted to improve body stability, lower the body height, reduce wind resistance during driving and make the car move faster.

Comfort and manoeuvrability

Comfort and handling have always been the two core measures of automotive performance, but it has always been difficult for many car designers to balance them.

Airmatic vs standard

Of course, compared with the traditional suspension, due to the air-type adjustable suspension structure is more complex, its failure rate and frequency will be higher than the coil spring suspension system, and the use of air as a source of power to adjust the chassis height, the sealing of the relevant components is also a problem, in addition, if the chassis height is adjusted frequently, it may also result in local overheating of the air pump system, which will greatly shorten the service life of the air pump. Of course, with the continuous improvement of the technical level, many problems have been well solved, at the same time, the application of the model is also more and more extensive.

Airmatic Auto Adjust

In addition, the acceleration generated by the wheel impacted by the ground is also one of the parameters considered in the automatic adjustment of the air spring. For example, when cornering at high speeds, the air springs and dampers on the outer wheels are automatically stiffened to reduce body roll, and during emergency braking the electronic module strengthens the stiffness of the springs and dampers on the front wheels in order to reduce the inertial roll of the body. As a result, cars with air springs have higher handling limits and a higher level of comfort than other cars.

Airmatic load capacity

Air suspension also incorporates traditional chassis lift technology. At high speeds, the body height is automatically lowered, which improves ground-holding properties and ensures good stability at high speeds while reducing wind resistance and fuel consumption. When travelling over bumpy roads at slow speeds, the chassis is automatically raised to improve passing performance. In addition, the air suspension system automatically maintains the horizontal height of the body, which is constant regardless of whether it is empty or fully loaded, so that the spring travel of the suspension system remains constant under any load conditions, so that the damping characteristics are basically unaffected. The bodywork is therefore easy to control even when fully loaded.

Caravan (Mercedes-Benz Marco Polo)

Air suspension systems are designed to achieve the same performance when the vehicle is empty and fully loaded, whereas steel springs tend to sink after a certain load, air springs are load independent and provide a constant static height of the vehicle.

This is often live in the caravan car enthusiasts are well aware of, if there is no air suspension, your car may be difficult to level, so when you lie in bed, some people have a dizzy feeling, and the air suspension can solve this problem, after levelling, open the parking legs, can help you to adjust the car to the level of the car, in fact, many enthusiasts in the selection of the car ignored this very practical problems, and lead to the caravan travelling experience feels poor.

It would also be wrong, then, to say that air suspension is not at all useful for comfort. It is the elimination of static compression between unloaded and fully loaded, with enough room for low frequencies to be realised and some of the road shock to be absorbed, that contributes in improving the comfort of the ride.

Overall situation

Some models in the original without air suspension is to add the whole system, such as: air shock absorbers, air springs, ECU module, electronic control module, distribution valve and so on.
For the air spring system has a number of different brands, each company carries out the whole car tuning is not the same, the use of components are not the same composition will greatly affect the comfort of the air suspension, and handling. The most famous brands are AMK and Continental,Real Ride

Real Rides

We have a product specifically tuned for the chassis of the W447 VITO, V-CLASS, as our components are used as standard, and the system has undergone 4 million cycles of fatigue testing, and the product has remained retail ready for 5 years of sales! Check out the difference in our products now! Airmatic real ride