Durability approval of leaf springs under operational loading

Leaf springs must be regarded as safety components of a vehicle which failures can cause severe accidents. They have to fulfill various functions as a spring element and for guiding the axles and are also responsible for driving comfort. Therefore, the durability approval must be carried out under representative service-like loading, which take into account complex leaf deformations in operational usage. In this paper the influencing parameters for the durability approval of leaf spring suspensions are discussed and the test rig and the standardized test program SPRILOS (SPRIng LOad Sequence) for the durability approval are described.