In this blog, we’ll take a look at an air spring (Figure 1). This device is used for vibration isolation as well as suspension, for example in heavy weight vehicle applications.

Figure 1: Example of an air spring.

The example shown here consists of a convoluted bellows (two convolutions), with steel plates on each end. In practice, one to three convolutions are used. The bellows is made of rubber that is reinforced with fibres. A steel girdle hoop helps to keep it in shape when it is filled with compressed air.