RE: Bilstein Warranty Update

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

Thanks Glen for the description of the theoretical differences between
dampers and springs ... 

Suffice it to say that real components do not exhibit perfectly the
characteristics of their theoretical models.  Springs are not ideal but
lossy, which means that even without a damper an excitation will eventually
be damped out due to frictional losses.  A gas pressurized damper can and
should be thought of as a damper that has some small spring constant.  This
gas spring will be in parallel with the metal one, which means that the
overall spring constant will be increased.  This means that given a fixed
amount of force applied, the amount of compression of the combined spring
will be less than that of the original spring alone.  This in no way demeans
the damper.  

To the comment about a situation where the damper and spring are mounted
separately ... the dynamic forces on the shock absorber mounts from the
extension and compression of the suspension are going to be much greater
than that slight added load created by the spring pressure of the
pressurized gas spring.  

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)