Custom Drive System Helps Mercedes-Benz Reduce Draft in Convertibles
The AIRCAP® automatic draft stop, offered in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertibles, is distinctively different from conventional angular wind deflectors. It is entirely embedded into the car body and completely concealed into the windshield frame when deactivated. In its activated state, an aerodynamically shaped wind deflector extends on top of the windshield without disfiguring the automobile’s aesthetic side line.
A drive system, designed by maxon motor GmbH in Sexau, Germany, takes care of moving the AIRCAP. Its core piece is a motor/gear combination specially designed for the application based on a maxon A-max 22 DC motor and a customized gearbox with three separate reduction stages. Prominent characteristics are compact, robust design; high-capacity, silent, highly dynamic ganging; self-locking output in both end positions; and handling-optimized, screwless assembly into the wind shield frame.
In the retracted position, the lamella module is braced and interlocked flush to the car body’s surface, and in the extended end position, it is mechanically interlocked. While being deployed, the drive overcomes wind ram pressures well beyond 250 km/h (155 mph) by torques of up to 7 Nm.