ARM FOR A MOTOR-VEHICLE INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION AND MOTOR-VEHICLE INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION COMPRISING THE SAME

摘要

The arm (12) comprises a pair of transverse rods (16, 18) ar¬ ticulated at their outer ends (24, 28) to the wheel-carrier of a vehicle wheel and at their inner ends (26, 30) to the vehicle body, and at least one pair of connecting elements (20, 22) which connect the rods (16, 18) to one another and are preferably formed as blade-like or plate-like elements, in such a manner that their bending stiffness in a plane is higher than their bending stiffness in a direction perpen¬ dicular to that plane. The arm (12) is capable of control¬ ling two translational degrees of freedom (DOFx, DOFy) along the axes of the rods (16, 18) and, by virtue of the geometry and torsional stiffness of the rods (16, 18), as well as of the geometry and bending stiffness of the connecting elements (20, 22) in their plane, a first rotational degree of freedom (DOFϑy) about a first, mainly transverse and horizontal axis (ESAy). According to the invention, the rods (16, 18) con¬ verge, preferably towards the outside of the vehicle, in such a manner that the arm has an elastic centre (EC) located out¬ side its physical envelope and is thus capable of control¬ ling, by virtue of the geometry and bending stiffness of the rods (16, 18), as well as of the geometry and bending stiff¬ ness of the connecting elements (20, 22) in the direction perpendicular to their plane, a second rotational degree of freedom (DOFϑz) about a second, mainly vertical axis (ESAz).