A New Vehicle Hydraulic Lifter Activated by a Magneto-rheological Valve System

Conventional lifting systems in vehicle maintenance have a limitation in fine motion control to do special service. This may bring some difficulties in precise works like a wheel alignment. In order to solve this problem this research suggests a new type of a hydraulic vehicle lifter featuring a magneto-rheological (MR) valve system for fine position control. Rough motion is achieved from the conventional hydraulic lifer and thereafter the fine motion is controlled by MR valve system which can provide the actuating force from the pressure drop due to the input current. After analysing the dynamic model of MR valve system, the detailed geometrical design is determined. It is experimentally shown that the fine position control performance of vehicle lifter can be achieved by controlling the pressure drop MR valve.