A Three-Star Silent Operator
By: G. Wiggins | Posted: 21st May 2007
Mercedes-Benz has held a lofty position among the most venerable names in automotive history. From the original automobile, Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen in 1886, to its current flagship car, the SLR, Mercedes has always crafted vehicles and other products with a simple, but absolute rule in mind: Die Besten oder Nichts --- "the best, or nothing."
Throughout the years, Benz and the duo of Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach had made possible the creation of hundred different types of vehicle, design concepts, and parts which continue to be applied anywhere in the world. Hence, Mercedes is not all about prestige – all of its vehicles produce power with minimal grunt, resulting to smooth and noiseless driving comfort. Contributing to this is a unique exhaust system, featuring the Mercedes muffler.
One of the key features of the Mercedes Benz line is its silent operation. All of the Mercedes Benz mufflers feature a specially designed resonator, an exhaust system component that looks just like a muffler. Working like a literal “resonator” inside the chambers of the muffler -- the Mercedes Benz muffler resonator's dimensions are calculated so that the waves are reflected accurately to help cancel out certain frequencies of sound in the exhaust.
When a wave hits the hole, part of it continues into the chamber and part of it is reflected. The wave travels through the chamber, hits the back the muffler's wall and bounces back out of the hole. The length of this chamber is calculated so that this wave leaves the resonator chamber just after the next wave reflects off the outside of the chamber. Ideally, the high-pressure part of the wave that came from the chamber will line up with the low-pressure part of the wave that was reflected off the outside of the chamber wall, and the two waves will cancel each other out.
The body of Mercedes muffler are constructed in three layers: Two thin layers of metal with a thicker, slightly insulated layer between them. This design allows the body of the muffler to absorb some of the pressure pulses. Also, the inlet and outlet pipes going into the main chamber are punctured with holes. This allows thousands of tiny pressure pulses to bounce around in the main chamber, canceling each other out to some extent in addition to being absorbed by the muffler's housing. This mechanism makes driving a Mercedes Benz doubly comfortable, while adding an unparalleled peace of mind to its owner.
Mercedes Benz's mufflers contribute to form the basis for the motorization of transport and, in particular, for the unprecedented tradition of the Mercedes-Benz brand – a tradition spanning from the tentative beginnings of motorization in the last century up to the present age typified by sophistication, high technology, and style.
Indeed, the brand with the three-pointed star features more than just a list of automotive engineering achievements marking the state of the art in their day and age. Mercedes-Benz represents tradition, innovation, comfort, power and the future of the automobile.
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_162911_31.html
Back to the original article
Tags: next wave, prestige, mercedes benz, exhaust system, waves, karl benz, grunt, thin layers