Tenneco readies new semi-active digital suspension for 2020

One enduring challenge of engineering commercial pickup trucks is how to make the vehicles ride and handle comfortably when unloaded without diminishing their crucial hauling and towing capabilities. Since 2002, chassis-technology supplier Tenneco has offered continuously variable semi-active suspension (CVSA) systems to address this need, but it soon will launch a simpler, less expensive semi-active damping system called DRiV (Digital Ride Valve). It is aimed initially at pickups and truck-based SUVs.

Tenneco's CVSAe systems use an external electronic valve to adjust damper compression in real time to road inputs and the vehicle's body reactions to them. Their infinite damping curves (within minimum/maximum limits) are created by a computer algorithm that drives the valve's reactions to wheel and body motions provided by sensors on the vehicle. The costlier CVSA2 system uses two electro-hydraulic valves to independently control both compression and rebound for a larger tuning range and higher levels of comfort and control.