You may have heard from a car sales outlet that a certain front-drive car was equipped with an “electronic differential lockâ€, or you may have seen from the car forum someone discuss the magical features of limited-slip differentials or differential locks. But is differential and differential lock the same thing? What exactly do they do? Why are you mostly equipped with high-end cars? Today, taking Eaton’s products as an example, let’s talk about differentials and differential locks.
Differential function and development
When the car is turning, the wheel track is an arc. If the car turns left, at the same time, the arc on the right side will be longer than the left side. In order to balance the distance difference between the two wheels, it is necessary to make the right wheel faster than the left wheel.
The main function of the vehicle differential is to allow the wheels on the left and right sides of the vehicle to run at different speeds. This will undoubtedly significantly improve the driving performance of the vehicle, especially the performance of curves.
The Eaton Company of the United States is a veteran automobile parts and accessories company. As early as in the 1960s, it invented a limited slip differential (ie, friction plate LSD) with restricted wheel slip, which has been widely welcomed by the market. After years of continuous technological improvement and upgrading, Eaton’s limited-slip differentials are now used by many OEMs, including GM, Saab, Kia and Hyundai.
The limited-slip differential has the function of assisting the traction control of the vehicle, but it is also defective. For example, the limited-slip differential cannot be completely locked, and the oil is also required to be extremely high, so only a high-performance car is usually used.
Differential lock function and development
When the car is driving on mud or ice and snow, the wheels will often slip, and ordinary differentials will cause the slipping wheels to lose traction and idling. On the other side, even if they are on a good road, they will not be powered and the vehicles will naturally Can't move forward.
To solve this problem, differential lock came into being. The role of the differential lock is that when a drive wheel slips, the differential case and the axle shaft are locked and integrated so that the differential acts as a differential, thereby shifting all the wheelbase to the drive wheel on the other side. In other words, the differential lock can be regarded as a differential with an automatic locking function, so it is also called a lock differential.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Eaton began to develop differential lock technology. At present, Eaton has introduced several products such as mechanical lock differentials and ELocker differentials.
The difference between the Eaton differential lock and the mechanical differential lock (also called a jaw differential lock) is that it does not require the driver to operate manually. When both sides of the wheel speed reaches the preset value, the differential lock will automatically lock, after locking the two sides of the wheel will have the same speed. In addition, when the tire is slipping, Eaton differential lock can automatically sense the slip, and automatically lock the left and right wheels, so as to achieve 100% torque transmission to effective wheels to avoid accidents and accidents.
As technology advances, Eaton continues to introduce new products with better performance. For example, Eaton will introduce an electric slip differential (e-LSD) in 2018 that will receive input signals from transmissions, throttles, and inertial sensors via an electronic control unit (ECU). According to a customized algorithm, the ECU transmits signals to the front and rear differentials to obtain the best torque vector.
Thanks to the electronic control, this product can provide fast response to achieve stable traction control, and it has full locking ability at any speed, improving vehicle safety and maneuverability control and overturning protection.
Eaton e-LSD Product Schematic
Stronger car performance
The differential can help the car maintain stable performance on a variety of road conditions. Especially for vehicles equipped with the Eaton differential, even if it is a two-wheel drive, its off-road performance is comparable to four-wheel drive, and the cost is far less than the four-wheel drive system.
Nearly 80% of general-purpose SUVs and pickup trucks in North America have already used high-performance differentials. In China, the use of high-performance differentials is also gradually increasing. Major SUVs and pickup manufacturers are also constantly looking for high-performance differentials. Now, Eaton high-performance differential locks have been widely used in many pickup and SUV brands, such as Haval, BYD, and Great Wall. It is believed that in the future, with the launch of the electric slip differential, Eaton will continue to enhance the performance of the automobile and trigger a new trend in the differential product market.
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