KISTLER RoaDyn SYSTEM USED TO ENSURE DURABILITY
OF BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT SUSPENSION.
The Bentley Continental GT has been praised not just for style
and luxury but also for its performance and roadholding.
The Kistler RoaDyn system was used measure real life loads on
the suspension components and assemblies to allow minimum
unsprung mass to be combined with durability.
Under contract to Bentley Motors, mi-Technology, previously Leyland
Technical Centre, used the RoaDyn system of in-wheel data acquisition
and radio telemetry to collect suspension performance data from tests
on a wide variety of road surfaces under different driving conditions.
The wide range of data collected, with different loads, damper settings
and wheel/tyre combinations was used to optimise the specification of
suspension components and for later use in QA test rigs to confirm
component life under realistic operating conditions.
Bentley and mi-Technology chose the Kistler RoaDyn system for its
sophisticated packaging and telemetry capability making it equally
suitable for use on both the test track and public roads. mi-Technology's
Mike Rushton says, "The RoaDyn system performed faultlessly and
because it provides a clean wheel with minimum protrusion, we could
make the best use of the available time by driving the Continental GT
to and from the test track with the system in place."
From the suspension designer's point of view, the ability to use the
RoaDyn system with a wide variety of wheel/tyre combinations was
a real benefit. Bentley Motors' suspension designer, Dominic Chawner,
explained that being able to measure and understand the effects of
different damper settings and wheel types on real life suspension loads
allowed the weight of components to be minimised without compromising
durability or performance.
In production, using a computer simulation based on the same data
for both QA and component life testing ensures that the real life durability
of the suspension system matches the design parameters.
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Kistler Instruments is one of the world’s leading manufacturers
of piezoelectric and piezoresistive precision sensors covering
acceleration, force, pressure and torque. Established in
Wintherthur (Switzerland) in 1957, Kistler is represented in over
50 countries and has subsidiaries in Germany, France, Italy, UK,
Japan, USA, China, Korea and Singapore.
Heavy investment in research and development, 15% of staff
worldwide are engaged in research and development, has
generated a number of innovations using piezoelectric,
piezoresistive and capacitive techniques to provide solutions
to numerous force, pressure and acceleration measuring problems.
These innovations include the world's first commercial quartz sensor,
two-wire constant current technology to integrate sensors with
microelectronic circuitry, high-temperature pressure sensors for
use up to 400 deg C and three-component force measuring sensors.
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For more information, please contact :-
Kistler Instruments Ltd.
13 Murrell Green Business Park, London Road, Hook RG27 9GR
Tel: +44 (0)1256 741550
Fax: +44 (0)1256 741551
Email: sales.uk@Kistler.com
Website: http://www.kistler.com
November 2005
