In this era of increasing popularity of cars, is there still a group of small whites like me who have little understanding of cars? After reading this article with me, you can have a general understanding of the basics of the car.
The car structure seems to be very complex, and it is true that the whole body of the car is composed of more than 20,000 large and small parts, but there is no need to panic, according to the basic structure of the car can be divided into four categories: body, chassis, engine, electrical equipment
bodywork
The body is the outer frame that carries the car. Including windows, doors, cockpit, engine compartment, luggage compartment, etc., how the shape design of the body will be directly related to the appearance of the car, driving resistance, loading capacity and so on. The quality of the body is like the load-bearing beam of a house, which plays a decisive role in the strength and structure of the whole house.
So how should we choose the body of a car?
First of all, look at the type of body, which can be divided into load-bearing structure and non-load-bearing structure.
The biggest difference between load-bearing and non-load-bearing bodies is whether there are independent girders.
(Girder of the load-bearing body)
Non-load-bearing body engines have been used in cars as early as a hundred years ago. Engine, tires, cab, etc. are fixed to a girder, the vibration and bumps during the drive are borne and digested by the girder, this structure makes the chassis strength is higher, the anti-bump performance is good, and there is better stability and safety. But at the same time, the weight of the girder brings a greater load to the car, which increases fuel consumption. So now the non-bearing body is more common in some off-road vehicles and trucks, usually such cars generally have high passability requirements, which makes the body chassis higher, resulting in a high center of gravity of the vehicle, difficult to control, and in the state of high-speed driving, the increase in turbulence under the high chassis makes the vehicle more unstable. Whether it is in terms of ride comfort or driving experience, the performance of non-loaded body is not as good as that of load-bearing body
Bearing body, because there is no girder, greatly reduced the overall weight of the car, but also because there is no girder support, the bumps and vibrations during the driving will be transmitted to the body through the suspension system, the body needs to withstand a variety of loads, the body needs to be stiffer naturally higher, and due to the direct conduction of the vibration during the bumps, the driving noise and vibration are relatively large. The lower chassis allows for smoother airflow during travel, which increases stability at high speeds, and most models now use a load-bearing body.
The second is the choice of materials for the body.
Body materials can be roughly divided into two types: metallic materials and non-metallic materials.
Metal materials include heavy metal materials such as steel plate and cast iron and light metals such as aluminum, magnesium, titanium and other materials and their alloys.
Non-metallic materials mainly include carbon fiber, resin, engineering plastics and so on.
The mainstream body frame has all steel, all aluminum, steel and aluminum mixed, etc., in the application of traditional body, all steel body technology is the most widely used, the price is relatively low, so that the body structure is strong and also brings more than 30% of the weight of the whole car. The weight of the car directly affects the performance of the car.
If you want to reduce weight, you must start from the body material, and the all-aluminum body frame can absorb a higher density of collision energy in a lighter weight, while the aluminum process is cumbersome, but the strength is not high, and can not be welded and other problems lead to higher maintenance costs after the collision.
Now now the steel and aluminum hybrid materials gradually appear in the public vision, reasonable control of the body parts of the material to control the weight and strength of different parts of the needs, taking into account the advantages of the above two, but also balance the production and maintenance costs. However, due to the difference in the physical properties of steel and aluminum, the technical cost of steel and aluminum hybrid body has become very large. With the advancement of technology, it is believed that in the near future this structure will become the mainstream application of automobile body.