On July 26, Patently Apple posted a report titled " Nikkei Asia finally woke up to the fact that Apple’s Patents have pointed to a major push into Autos for years." Patently Apple has been following Apple's autonomous vehicle patent trend since 2017 and today we're posting Project Titan patent report #128, the latest patent published by the U.S. Patent Office.   

Today's brief patent report covers one of Apple's patents on a possible next-gen vehicle suspension system. Most of what Apple's details in their patent filing will go over the head of most Apple fans. However, if you happen to be a mechanic versed on suspension systems, a car enthusiast or engineer, then you just might find Apple's patent worth exploring. We provide a link to this deeply detailed patent at the bottom of this report.  

Overall, Apple's proposed suspension system includes a top mount, a bottom mount, a rigid housing, an air spring, and a linear actuator. The air spring transfers force of a first load path between the top mount and the bottom mount. The air spring includes a pressurized cavity containing pressurized gas that transfers the force of the first load path.

The linear actuator transfers force of a second load path between the top mount and the bottom mount in parallel to the first load path. The rigid housing defines at least part of the pressurized cavity and transfers the force of the second load path.

Apple's patent filing points out that "The drive system may be an autonomous drive system that operates the various functional subsystems to move a vehicle to a user-selected location without further input from the user.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below is a schematic view of a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment; FIG. 2 is an overview schematic view of the vehicle of FIG. 1.

Apple's patent FIG. 6A above is an elevation schematic view of a suspension system for use with the vehicle of FIG. 1; FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view of the suspension system of FIG. 6A; FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional schematic view of another suspension system for use in the vehicle of FIG. 1.

To dive deeper into the details behind Apple's 'Active Suspension System', review Apple's patent application number 20220258557.

For those interested in Apple's work on next-gen suspension systems, here are a few other patent reports that you could review: (01, 02, 03 and 04)