3 replies to this topic

[Gerald Ryan]

Some years back I saw an article about innovations Ferrari had either produced for road cars, raced on the track or designed but did not use (perhaps they tried a few out but decided not to go ahead with them). One of the ideas related to a modified form of double a-arm suspension. The idea seems to have been to provide a linkage which mimicked the deployment of long a-arms (allowing more compact packaging so as to fit the space available). Now I'm thinking back to something I saw in passing and it was a long time ago. I think it was the lower a-arm which was replaced by an arrangement similar to a single sided Watts link mechanism. I'm guessing that would have been to make the lower linkage assembly behave like a long a-arm. Does anyone recall anything like this?  

[Greg Locock]

You could do it with a 4 bar linkage, to give say a straight , vertical, path for the outer ball joint in bump (ie an infinite length arm). There are many configurations of 4 bar links that give shorter or longer bits of straight travel, as you suggest including the watts link

 

Here's somebody's thesis, I bet he is fun at parties. https://repository.r...&context=theses

 

And here's all sorts of more or less practical solutions, the Chebyshev looks like the one I'd concentrate on if somebody else was paying

 

https://en.wikipedia...-line_mechanism

Edited by Greg Locock, 14 December 2024 - 05:38.

[Gerald Ryan]

Good Morning Greg

 

Thank you for the links. The thesis I'll need to take some time to digest. The wiki page is good. I like the animations. They certainly do help understand those linkages.

 

On another note. How are you? Are you still with Ford these days? What's news? 

[Bloggsworth]

Interesting to know how linear they will remain once tolerances and wear compound.