Damper valves
The heart of the damper in semi-active and active suspension systems
RAPA’s damper valve technology maximizes damper performance and enables permanent damper regulation in different driving and road conditions – for greater driving comfort and optimized driving safety. Successfully used by German premium manufacturers.
RAPA – the best address for smart valve technology.
Advantages
- Gain in comfort
- Security
- For luxury and premium vehicles and SUVs
- Contribution to environmental protection through reduced fuel consumption and therefore lower CO2 emissions
Hydraulic proportional valve with pressure feedback
for optimizing adaptive chassis damping in semi-active and active chassis.
Product description
The valve system is the heart of every shock absorber. The proportional valves required for stepless adjustment represent the top class of this type. To this end, RAPA has developed an intelligent damper valve technology with two continuously adjustable control valves in the compression and rebound stages exclusively for the shock absorber manufacturer thyssenkrupp Bilstein – based on the know-how of its previous damper valve developments. These are responsible for regulating the damping force and work as an adjustable hydraulic bypass in the shock absorber. This enables the damper to ensure damping force adjustment according to the skyhook principle even in the high-frequency range of wheel vibrations. One valve controls the rebound stage, i.e. the force when the wheel extends, and the other controls the force in the compression stage. Within a few milliseconds, the control unit responsible for the suspension control adjusts the damping forces for each wheel individually. This increases comfort for the occupants and stabilizes the body in the best possible way. The special design of the valve ensures that the damping force is proportional to the set current. The valve-internal pressure feedback ensures superimposed pressure limitation even with highly dynamic excitations, which further increases ride comfort.
Key features
- Best in class solution for valve map spreading
- Comfort-oriented directional control valve technology
- Low energy consumption
- Outstanding cost-benefit ratio thanks to variable modular valve system
Technical data
- Proportional directional control valve technology with minimal hysteresis and excellent response behavior
- Combined with valve-internal pressure feedback for pressure limitation
- High spread of the valve map
- Harmonic progression of the pressure-flow characteristics
- Compact design
- Design optionally as NO (normally open) and NC (normally close) variant
- Lowest leakage through the valve due to seat seal in closed state
- Lowest pressure loss when open
- External valve, suitable for free installation in the wheel arch
- Low energy consumption
- 100% duty cycle
- Long service life
- Industrialized for large-scale production
Production
Production takes place in a new, modern, high-performance production hall at the main plant in Selb on two fully automated production lines, each consisting of five assembly units. A further line is planned at the RAPA plant in the USA. An essential part of production is the fully automatic quality inspection of each individual valve. All systems are therefore equipped with EOL test benches as standard. Each valve is 100% tested to meet the customer’s hydraulic requirements. For our customers, this means greater safety in all processes and precise quality for highly reliable and precisely fitting products.
Damper valve technology from RAPA optimizes damping technology in the chassis
RAPA Automotive develops and manufactures innovative valves with high performance and special properties for the high-end automotive market. The division of the parent company RAPA is one of the world’s leading suppliers of valve and valve system technologies for chassis components. Almost all valves and systems are customized individual solutions to improve weight, function, NVH behavior, emissions and costs. The innovative strength of the division is reflected in the high R&D ratio: 15 percent of the workforce work in research and development.
Insight into the damper valve series production: two fully automated production lines on which almost 7 million valves are produced per year.
RAPA damper control valves for permanent damper regulation
Different roads and different traffic situations require different damping characteristics. Adjustable shock absorbers are being used more and more frequently in passenger car series production – the proportional valves required for infinitely variable adjustment of the rebound and compression stages describe the top class of this type. With its high-end products, RAPA offers a particularly good compromise between driving safety and agility. For this purpose, thyssenkrupp Bilstein developed an intelligent damper valve technology with two continuously adjustable control valves in the compression and rebound stages. Compared to conventional adjustable dampers with only one external adjustment valve or with an internal adjustment valve, this achieves permanent damper regulation. Lower rebound force increases comfort. With a higher rebound force, handling is improved, body vibrations are reduced and there is no rolling or swaying even during compression.
RAPA’s damper valve technology significantly improves comfort. Premium vehicles and SUVs drive even more harmoniously. The variable, adaptive shock absorption, which reacts to different driving situations and the nature of the road surface at all times, also enables fuel savings and thus contributes to a reduction in CO2 emissions.
Thanks to its many years of expertise and the resulting modular valve system, RAPA can develop the best individual solution for each customer. By combining specific requirements with the use of standard elements, a wide range of damper valve variants can be realized. The advantages for RAPA customers are therefore short development times and therefore a quickly realizable market maturity of the product as well as the implementation of specific functions.
Outsourced development center for top car manufacturer
The entire process, from pre-development and test series to the finished product in series production, takes place in-house at RAPA. RAPA Automotive acts as an external development center for its customers in the premium segment. In an intensive partnership based on the open innovation concept, the customer is involved in the open research, development and testing process at all times and receives advice from engineer to engineer at every step.
In the first phase, concepts and simulations are developed, calculations are made and basic research is carried out. This is followed in the second phase by tests on the life cycle, manufacturability and production processes. After each phase, an assessment is made as to whether the desired product performance can be realized. As thorough as these development phases are, RAPA is still fast in product development in order to be able to offer the customer the desired product in series maturity quickly.
Testing, production and assembly at the highest level
At its headquarters in Selb (Upper Franconia, Bavaria), the RAPA Automotive division has 2,500 m² of laboratory and validation space with state-of-the-art measuring and testing technology. Here, each valve is subjected to a fully automatic function test, during which the hydraulic properties are also measured. EOL test benches test the valves much more precisely than would be possible with humans. This guarantees customers maximum safety as well as reliable and precisely fitting system parts.
Around 90 percent of all necessary testing and validation procedures are carried out in-house in order to meet the special requirements of the automotive industry. Complex sequences with combined loads in terms of temperature, service life, climate and environment can be run in-house. The data obtained flows into computer simulation models and provides valuable insights even before the elaborate prototype construction begins.
As the company’s own ISO 17025-accredited quality and testing laboratory means that in-depth information on material properties and product behavior is quickly available, the development and manufacturing process can be rapidly advanced to series production. Numerous vehicle tests with set-up laps are carried out to optimize the subjective driving experience and chassis control.
RAPA relies on comprehensive quality management and has all the necessary automotive industry certifications such as IATF 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and EMAS. RAPA is also certified in accordance with the VDA quality management standard.
