Composite Structures 5 (1986)233-242

Composite Integrated Rear Suspension

C. J. Morris
~, L~ "~Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan~USA

ABSTRACT
Fiber reinforced plastics are undergoing extensive studies as potential
structural materials for automotive applications. This paper describes the
design, fabrication, weight analysis and testing of a composite integrated
rear suspension in a Ford Escort vehicle. This suspension utilizes a
transverse FRP leaf spring to integrate the functions of the production
Escort stamped steel lower arms and coil springs. The spring was
designed using previously developed composite design procedures. The
results show concept feasibility, a vehicle weight saving of 7 lb, good
ride, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics. A reduction
in roll stiffness points out the need for development in the design of the
center clamp attachment to the body structure. This study demonstrates
the viability and potential of fiber reinforced composites in automotive
suspension systems.

1 INTRODUCTION
The efficiency of composites applications in structural applications is
greatly enhanced by the integration of parts wherever feasible. In
evaluating potential composite applications to chassis systems a survey of
commonly used suspension types was made and the potential for composite applications was assessed on a judgemental basis. Of the types
surveyed the Escort type rear suspension (Fig. 1) was judged to have good
potential for integration of parts. The composite integrated suspension
system described in this report, where the steel transverse suspension
arms and coil springs are replaced by a single transverse FRP leaf spring
233
Composite Structures 0263-8223/86/$03.50 O Elsevier Applied Science Publishers Ltd,
England, 1986. Printed in Great Britain

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C. J. Morris

Fig. 1. E A O / N A A O Escort production rear suspension.

Fig. 2. Experimental integrated FRP rear suspension.

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235

(Fig. 2), represents the demonstration of the design, prototype build and
evaluation of such a system.

2 OBJECTIVES
The major goals of the system design were as follows:
(i) Design a composite component utilizing specific composite design
procedures.
(ii) Demonstrate component integration.
(iii) Build concept demonstration vehicle.
(iv) Determine ride and handling issues.

3 SPRING DESIGN
In concept, the combined functions of the two lower arms and two coil
springs are integrated into a single transverse leaf spring mounted at the
center and attached to the wheel spindles at each end (Fig. 2). Each half
of the transverse spring must have the equivalent of the production coil
spring rate to satisfy ride and handling requirements and must geometrically deform to maintain the appropriate wheel camber, etc.
The location of the spring end attachment is fixed by the wheel spindle,
thus determining the spring length. Also the spring rate is fixed. So the
design contains three elements:
(i) Functional spring design.
(ii) Maintenance of acceptable suspension geometry.
(iii) Design of vehicle modifications to package the CIRS.
A design study was made to determine the vehicle changes necessary to
install the concept into the rear of a three-door Escort. The three-door
model was chosen since it requires the lowest spring rate of all Escort
models and generally, within a given package, the spring of lowest rate
generates the highest stress levels in the spring. Concurrently the
configuration of a constant cross-section area FRP leaf spring was
computed to match spring rates and load characteristics of the production
suspension. This spring configuration was accomplished using a
composite leaf spring design program developed by Robertson. t The

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C. J. Morris

program is user friendly and runs on the Ford CYBER 176 Computer. It
has options for analysis of three types of leaf spring configuration:
(i) Constant cross-section area, tapered in plan and side views,
sometimes called the 'bow-tie' type.
(ii) Constant cross-section, no taper.
(iii) Constant width, tapered in the side view only.
In this case the constant cross-section area tapered type was chosen
(Fig. 3) since it gives the most weight efficient design while allowing all
fibers to run the full length of the spring and is therefore compatible with
existing simple filament winding techniques.
Input data for the program include length, spring rate, design and
jounce loads, suspension travels, width at the center, percentage of
center width at ends, type of fiber (e.g. graphite or glass), and volume
percent of fiber content.
Output data from the program include spring thickness at the center,
maximum composite and fiber stresses, maximum shear stresses and
recommended maximum allowable stresses. Also output are a number of
load/deflection values between zero and full jounce loads. There are a

5 in.

100 mm ~,

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5 in.

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100 mm

Fig. 3. Symmetricsinuousspring-Escort transverse leaf spring.

Composite integrated rear suspension

237

Fig. 4. FRP leaf springs. Filament winding-compressionmoldingprocess.

series of user options for graphic and calcomp plot outputs. Maximum
fiber stress for the computed spring (121 ksi) was very close to the
m a x i m u m r e c o m m e n d e d in 'E' glass (120 ksi).

4 SPRING F A B R I C A T I O N
The springs are fabricated by drawing a bundle of fibers through a bath of
resin and winding them on spindles into a larger bundle, longer than the
finished spring, and laying this bundle into a female die. The male die is
then pressed into the female and heat is applied to initiate the resin cure.
After curing, the spring is removed from the die and trimmed to length
(Fig. 4).
For this project, glass fibers in an epoxy matrix were selected with 50%
volume of glass fiber. Glass fiber was chosen due to its great economic

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C. J. Morris

advantage over other fibers, e.g. graphite, and the 50% volume is close to
the maximum attainable in practice.

5 VEHICLE AT~'ACHMENT
The geometry characteristics of the production metal lower arms were
approximated by keeping the length of the center attachment clamp as
short as possible, thus producing the longest equivalent link radius in each
cantilever. Design of the center clamp attachment to the vehicle underbody was based on existing designs for steel leaf spring 'isoclamps' used
on the Pinto vehicle. Since it is not desirable to drill a hole in the center of
the FRP spring, as is done in steel leaf springs for positive spring retention,
the clamp system was modified vs. the Pinto design. It was proposed that a
protruding pad be molded to the top and bottom surfaces of the spring
and that the rubber isolators be configured to surround this pad and thus
provide the necessary retention feature. A series of metal shims was also
introduced into the clamp to effect any required ride height changes in the
prototype vehicle. Since the transverse leaf spring would be loading the
rear suspension body crossmember with a large bending moment at the
vehicle centerline it was necessary to substantially reinforce the crossmember. In the prototype build proposal this was accomplished by
adding a 'hat' section doubler to the existing member across its total span.
The design study also showed that the existing routing of the fuel fill pipe
under the crossmember was not feasible since the leaf spring would
interfere over a substantial portion of its vertical travel. This was solved
by raising the fuel fill pipe and routing through a notch formed in the
crossmember for that purpose. The crossmember was further reinforced
locally around the notched area.
Steel end fittings were designed to attach the spring ends to the wheel
spindles in the same manner as the production transverse lower arms.
Since little was known about the variation in spring thickness at the ends
due to the fabrication process, the end fitting design was such that a
generous thickness variation could be accommodated. It was expected
that this would not be necessary in any future production design. Fittings
were designed to be bonded to the FRP spring and also bolted to give a
100% 'fail-safe' feature.
The weight effect of this suspension system was estimated at an overall
vehicle weight saving of approximately 7 lb vs. the production Escort.

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239

6 P R O T O T Y P E BUILD AND TESTING

The first springs were installed in the vehicle. The vehicle ride rate was
checked statically by applying load increments to the rear of the vehicle
and measuring the incremental deflection with the wheels resting on a scale
so that accurate wheel loads could be obtained. The ride rate with the first
spring installed was found to be 14% greater than the production vehicle,
but a ride evaluation showed that this greater rate was very difficult to
detect subjectively. It proved to be feasible to reduce the spring rate by
approximately 5% without major tooling changes and all subsequent
springs were made this way.
A second vehicle was completed and the rough road testing initiated.
The rough road durability test consists of 400 cycles of an approximately
18 mile course over a variety of extremely rough surfaces at Dearborn
Proving Ground. These surfaces include cobblestones, belgian block and
square edged potholes. This test is very severe and is designed as an
accelerated test for chassis components to show which components will
typically fail first. At 28 cycles the vehicle was inspected and the spring
was found to have delaminations on the tension side. Closer inspection
showed that these delaminations were due to fiber damage during the
molding process where the center Iocator pad was molded into the spring.
The spring was replaced with another which was manufactured without
the locator pads molded in. This spring was bonded to the rubber isolators
to maintain its location in the vehicle. The vehicle was inspected at
approximately 50 cycle intervals and general repairs made as required.
At 266 cycles the left-hand steel end fitting of the spring developed a crack
located in a bend radius causing a slight sag on the left-hand side of the
vehicle. The composite spring itself showed no evidence of damage. Since
these end fittings were never intended to be representative of a future
production design and the crack was probably a result of poor control of
the bending operation, the fitting was repaired and the test continued. At
353 cycles the spring showed no signs of damage and the repair to the end
fitting showed no degradation. Since the spring now had 325 cycles (81%
of the goal), proof of concept durability was substantially demonstrated
and the test was terminated.
Simultaneously with the durability testing, evaluations were made for
ride, handling, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) parameters using
the original build vehicle. The vehicle was evaluated by personnel from
various production design and development departments. Generally,

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C. J. Morris
TABLE 1

Evaluation Summary: Composite Integrated Rear Suspension Escort vs. Standard Escort
Composite integrated
rear suspension
Escort

Standard
Escort

1. Vehicle handling overall

(a) Cornering---Capacity
~-Confidence
--Roll control
(b) Stability--Directional
--Lane change
----Cross wind

6.7
6.9
6.7
6-2
6-7
5-9
6.5

7.0
7.0
7.0
6.5
7.0
7.0
7.5

2. Vehicle ride overall

(a) Smooth roads/boulevard
(b) Rough roads
(c) Control/balance

6.4
7-1
6-3
6-3

7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0

3. Body and chassis NVH overall

(a) Impact harshness--Feel
--Noise
(b) Noise--Interior overall
(c) Shake--Steering wheel/column
--Mid-car
--Front end
--Tyre
(d) Body boom
(e) Rolling feel

6.6
6.3
6.2
6-5
6.5
6.9
7.0
7-0
6-6
7-0

6-6
6.0
6.0
6.0
7.0
7.0
7-0
7.0
6.5
7.0

Characteristic

Comments:
Some loss of cornering capacity.
Less control in transient maneuvers.
Lane changes occur in two distinct steps.
Loss of roll control.
Needs shock absorber development for ride balance.
Some rear impact noise/harshness improvement.

r e s u l t s o f t h e s e e v a l u a t i o n s w e r e in a g r e e m e n t , with f a v o r a b l e ratings f o r
ride a n d N V H , i.e. c o m p a r a b l e to b a s e E s c o r t , a n d criticism f o r roll
c o n t r o l a n d d i r e c t i o n a l stability in s e v e r e h a n d l i n g m a n e u v e r s , i.e. h a r d
c o r n e r i n g a n d l a n e c h a n g e s . T h e s e criticisms f o r h a n d l i n g are a s c r i b e d to
l a c k o f d e v e l o p m e n t in the c e n t e r m o u n t i n g c l a m p a r e a . A r e v i e w o f
p r o d u c t i o n a n d o t h e r p r o p o s e d designs, e.g. 1984 C o r v e t t e a n d 1985

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241

Chevrolet 'M' Van suggests that the clamp is too soft for this application.
The data from these other designs were not available at the time the
Escort system was designed. A summary of the vehicle ratings vs. the
production Escort is shown in Table 1. A description of the rating system
used is contained in the Appendix.

7 CONCLUSIONS
All the major goals of the system design were met, i.e.:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)

C o m p o n e n t integration was demonstrated.

A concept demonstration vehicle was built.
Concept durability was demonstrated.
Ride and handling issues were determined.
A system weight saving of 7 lb. was demonstrated.

The major issue remaining was determined to be center attachment

clamp development to improve roll control and vehicle stability to an
acceptable level.
While the center locator pads caused unacceptable performance in the
one sample tested, it cannot be concluded that this type of Iocator should
never be considered for future designs. It is, however, recommended that
an investigation into improved FRP spring fabrication procedures be
carried out prior to future use of this or similar Iocator pad concepts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to P. Beardmore and R. A. Jeryan for discussion
and critical evaluation of this manuscript. The author also appreciates the
assistance of N. G. Chavka in carrying out the build and test phases of this
project.

REFERENCE
1. Robertson, R. E., Design of FRP leaf springs, unpublished.

242

('. J. Morris

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