Design, Manufacturing and Testing of Polymer Composite Multi-Leaf Spring for Light Passenger Automobiles - A Review

Abstract

Weight reduction has been the main/primary focus of automobile manufactures. Suspension leaf spring, a potential item for weight reduction in automobiles, accounts for 10-25 percent of unsprung weight, (which is considered to be the mass not supported by leaf spring). Application of composite materials reduces the weight of leaf spring without any reduction on the load carrying capacity and stiffness in automobile suspension system(Daugherty,1981;Breadmore,1986;Morris,1986). A double tapered beam for automotive suspension leaf spring has been designed and optimized(Yu & Kim,1988). Composite mono leaf spring(Rajendran & Vijayarangan,2001) has also been analyzed and optimized.