High demands are made of modern commercial vehicles and buses with regard to transportation efficiency. One approach here is to increase payload while retaining the legally limited axle loads. The key is to substitute plastic for metal. For air springs this route has been pursued consistently for decades. Using the method of integrative computation described in this paper, even air springs for tractors, trucks and buses can be designed with a lightweight construction, with the internal volume of the piston being used to increase driving comfort. It is possible to obtain a more realistic indication of stress in the component by transferring the results of mold flow analysis into the theoretical strength analysis by means of FEM analysis. The result is a much reduced material consumption. Material costs and cycle times in production are minimized. The result is air suspension systems which, compared with the state of the art, deliver a weight saving of up to 15 kg in the case of a four-air-spring drive axle. The reduction in CO_2 emissions resulting from this can be as much as 200 kg over a driven distance of 400,000 km. The corrosion protection inherent in the material also makes a contribution to environmental protection.
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