What shock absorbers exactly do?
Monroe continued to innovate, inventing the world’s first two-way hydraulic shock absorber in 1929. By 1951 the Monro-Matic was the best-known Monroe shock absorber in the world and remained the standard for both the US car industry and the aftermarket throughout the 1950s. The company’s overseas expansion began in 1964 with the opening of a manufacturing plant in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, which today houses the Monroe Technological and Engineering Centre (METC), one of the company’s global centres of R&D excellence in advanced suspension systems. The Monroe Auto Equipment Company was acquired by Tenneco Inc. in 1977 and today has grown to one of the largest suppliers of original equipment and aftermarket shock absorbers in the world.
Independent front wheel Monroe suspension was first introduced in the 1930’s, replacing the older, simpler design using rigid axles with leaf springs and which have now disappeared on touring cars. Independent rear wheel suspension was introduced some 30 years later. Independent wheels provide separate wheel-by-wheel suspension and so limit wheel jumping, are free from shimmy and reduce the unsuspended weight-thereby improving roadholding. Independent wheel suspensions have jointed arms which permit a more adaptable wheel geometry and accommodate more flexible springs which are therefore restricted to their proper role of providing elastic linkage between the wheels and the chassis.
A great variety of rear suspension systems exists. Some manufacturers still use a rigid rear axle, either in association with semi-elliptical leaf springs or mounted with coil springs and longitudinal rods, plus a “Panhard bar” for lateral guidance. Some front wheel drive systems which retain the rigid rear axle use a simple tube with two semi-elliptical leaf springs, or an axle supported on coil springs and guide rods. On rear wheel drive vehicles, some manufacturers use the “De Dion axle”. In this elegant system, the driving wheels are mounted on properly guided rigid triangles, while the “suspended” differential is fixed to the chassis.
