For instance, on of Lord's products will be used in shock absorbers for the 2002 Cadillac Seville. The mechanism Lord created calculates various data, including the weight of the car, the position of the car in relation to the wheels and how fast the car is traveling. If the Caddy hits a pothole or a speed bump, sensors tell a microprocessor then sends a series of electromagnetic surges through wires to the MR fluid, which hardens and softens based on how strong the surge is. The fluid readjusts moment by moment it can change up to 30,000 times a second so that the car remains stable regardless of what the wheels are doing. But comfort isn't the only implication here.
Safety is another.
Again, the MR fluid can correct for that. If a driver took a corner too fast, the dampers would respond proportionally, clamp down hard on one side and keep the vehicle from tumbling over. Jim Hagedon, a spokesman for Delphi Automotive Systems, a top supplier of components to auto manufacturers and the folks working with Lord to manufacture the new shock absorbers, says his company's product is called MagneRide. The existing technologies were basically mechanical in nature, and the MR fluid allows for a much faster response time. The Cadillac deal is just one of the projects Lord is working on.