So the air dams under our Volts often scrape pavement when the road is uneven (grade changes, speed bumps, construction, etc.), slowly damaging the dams. I started to wonder why the dam is one seemingly monolithic piece of rubber. What if the air dam had a different material and form to make it a bit more resilient?
I guess I need to figure out what the air dam has to do, first: It has to work as an air dam, of course, pushing along air. It needs resistance from damage from both scrapes and impacts - some sort of balance of hard and soft (I'm sure a materials scientist would know the right terms!). And it'd need a lot of flexibility, but it needs to "remember" its original shape well. Optimally, it should lose function slowly - something that gets worn down more like a wiper blade than the tears I've seen in some other threads. Anything I missed?
My first concept was something brush-like (i.e. a dense forest of soft bristles pointing downwards, like a broom). But there'd need to be some care chosen to find a material that won't permanently deform if the the bristles get bent on something like a parking block, and then the car is parked there for a month or so. I don't think the dam has to be perfectly smooth, but I'm not sure. (And the current air dam doesn't stay very smooth for that long, anyway!)
Any other ideas?
I guess I need to figure out what the air dam has to do, first: It has to work as an air dam, of course, pushing along air. It needs resistance from damage from both scrapes and impacts - some sort of balance of hard and soft (I'm sure a materials scientist would know the right terms!). And it'd need a lot of flexibility, but it needs to "remember" its original shape well. Optimally, it should lose function slowly - something that gets worn down more like a wiper blade than the tears I've seen in some other threads. Anything I missed?
My first concept was something brush-like (i.e. a dense forest of soft bristles pointing downwards, like a broom). But there'd need to be some care chosen to find a material that won't permanently deform if the the bristles get bent on something like a parking block, and then the car is parked there for a month or so. I don't think the dam has to be perfectly smooth, but I'm not sure. (And the current air dam doesn't stay very smooth for that long, anyway!)
Any other ideas?
I think what AySy88 would like is something that doesn't make a sound when scraped. Although the dam itself seems wel designed to "give" when scraped, the complaint is about the scraping sound itself. People don't like the sound. The air dam itself is very durable, the scraping may mar the lip, but it does not damage the car. The worst that happens is it becomes unbuckled from the side pieces and the tabs can then be reinserted and snugged up again. So people are reacting to the sound. I rarely scrape mine anymore, but I use the sound as a reminder that I hit that ramp/bump too fast.
