Modern public infrastructure demands durability, efficiency, and minimal environmental impact. The role of air bellows in minimizing road wear is often underestimated, especially in heavy-duty public service machinery. At Tevema, we’ve engineered our air bellows with this precise objective in mind. As part of our commitment to public sector innovation, our air bellows effectively absorb vibrational energy, mitigating force transmission to asphalt surfaces. The result is extended pavement life and reduced maintenance frequency. This contributes to both economic and ecological sustainability. Tevema’s air bellows integrate multi-convolution structures that adjust under varying load conditions, allowing vehicles to distribute axial forces more evenly. This protects road surfaces against repetitive high-load impact. Additionally, the compact installation height of our air bellows allows better design integration in limited-space applications without sacrificing performance. Through innovative rubber-metal combinations, we create sustainable components that extend road and equipment longevity.
How axial load management prevents asphalt damage
At the heart of effective road surface protection is a solution that adapts to fluctuating load patterns. Our air bellows excel in axial load management, a crucial factor in minimizing localized pressure peaks. When public service vehicles operate in stop-and-go traffic, roads endure repetitive point loads. Over time, this leads to rutting, potholes, and premature degradation. With Tevema air bellows, internal pressure distributes dynamic loads evenly across the entire bellow surface. This protects asphalt from concentrated stress zones, reducing the chance of failure at weak points. Our products feature adjustable stiffness, engineered through multi-ply elastomers, which helps in varying frequency responses. This makes them ideal for systems requiring adaptable force control and minimal surface fatigue. Moreover, our designs support low-frequency isolation, ensuring fewer stress cycles reach the roadbed. This leads to significant long-term savings in road resurfacing budgets while improving vehicle operating efficiency.
Vibrational damping as a method of road preservation
Road deterioration isn’t caused solely by load—it’s also driven by vibration transmission. Air bellows offer over 99% vibration isolation, preserving both vehicle and infrastructure integrity. Tevema’s bellows feature configurations with natural frequencies as low as 1.2 Hz, specifically developed to tackle low-frequency structural disturbances. When vehicles move over uneven surfaces or encounter sudden impact, vibrations travel through their frames into the road surface. Our air bellows act as a decoupling agent between chassis and ground contact points, dramatically reducing this resonant energy transfer. Through the integration of natural rubber and synthetic elastomers, we achieve a precise damping profile matched to the demands of urban and off-road terrain. Incorporating vibration isolation strategies is not just about comfort—it prevents microcracking in pavements. Over time, this preserves infrastructure lifespan. Our rubber-reinforced bellows deliver consistent isolation performance, even under varying temperature or humidity conditions.
Uniform load distribution under dynamic conditions
One challenge public infrastructure faces is the uneven stress created by unbalanced loads in moving equipment. At Tevema, our air bellows feature adaptive load responses through a variable pressure system. This allows the bellow to dynamically alter its shape and rigidity, ensuring uniform force application on any surface beneath. Our use of multi-convolution rubber designs adds flex zones that counteract load imbalances across multiple axes. The result is not only improved suspension performance but also significantly less road indentation. With tested design heights ranging from 50 mm to 140 mm and standardized vibration control profiles, Tevema’s air bellows maintain constant support integrity regardless of real-time changes in payload. We’ve tested our systems in multi-environment conditions, using elastomer blends such as EPDM and chlorobutyl for enhanced weather resistance. This prevents deformation or stress hardening, two major causes of road degradation. Tevema ensures optimized geometry for each application, offering precision load spread under all operating modes.
Compact construction that minimizes road pressure peaks
Traditional mechanical suspension systems often require bulky installations, limiting placement and raising the center of gravity. This can lead to uneven load exertion on the road. At Tevema, we design air bellows with compact construction heights, allowing better integration without compromising stability. This compactness also enables closer-to-ground suspension points, effectively lowering impact forces. It reduces shock transfer to both cargo and roadway, limiting structural fatigue. Our rubber bellows adapt to low installation heights while maintaining consistent output, ensuring stable oscillation dampening and improved ride performance. Each air bellow is manufactured with vulcanized reinforcing fabric, and closed using either crimped, bead ring, or dismountable designs. Stroke lengths can reach up to 400 mm depending on the model. This allows flexibility in configuration while preserving mechanical resistance. By staying compact and durable, our air bellows indirectly protect surfaces by reducing the oscillatory impact of every axle movement.
Material innovations for environmental durability
Long-term road preservation requires components that withstand chemical exposure, UV radiation, and temperature fluctuations. Tevema’s air bellows are built with high-performance elastomers such as natural rubber, nitrile, chloroprene, and EPDM. These materials maintain mechanical integrity across a wide temperature range. For corrosive or outdoor applications, we offer stainless steel AISI-304 and AISI-316L closures to prevent oxidation, even in humid or chemical environments. Our rubber-metal hybrid construction ensures elasticity without compromising structure, maintaining consistent force transmission characteristics over time. Pressure capabilities range from 8 to 12 bar depending on ply count. This also contributes to eco-friendly infrastructure, as reduced wear means fewer repair interventions and less material waste. Our weatherproof designs mean users can deploy our solutions in extreme conditions without concern for degradation. By preventing material fatigue in suspension systems, we reduce damage at contact points with the road. Material resilience leads to consistent load behavior, reinforcing pavement reliability and reducing infrastructure fatigue cycles.
Versatility across urban deployment scenarios
Public infrastructure vehicles operate in highly variable conditions. From city streets to construction zones, Tevema air bellows offer versatile performance. We support single, double, and triple convolution bellows, designed to meet a spectrum of operational needs without modifying the overall system architecture. Each model features custom stroke lengths, mounting configurations, and natural frequency ratings, offering adaptable mechanical behavior. This makes them ideal for managing road stressors such as potholes, elevated curbs, or inclined surfaces. By delivering tailored responses to different movement scenarios, we help users protect both machinery and public roads. Our bellows are available in various diameters and heights, ranging from 80 mm to 950 mm in diameter. We support custom closure types depending on space constraints and mounting strategies. Whether operating in dense traffic or at low speeds, our systems ensure minimized vibrational transfer and predictable deflection, ultimately helping reduce the impact per axle contact.
Maintenance-free design for reduced road stress cycles
Unlike traditional mechanical actuators, our air bellows feature no sliding seals, resulting in longer lifespans and minimal maintenance. This design reduces not only mechanical wear but also the frequency of pressure anomalies that can affect road load profiles. Tevema’s rubber bellows require no lubrication, making them an ideal choice in environments where cleanliness or reliability is essential. With zero stick-slip effect, we provide consistent force output throughout the bellow’s service life. The absence of mechanical friction also means smoother operation and less jolting—key contributors to road fatigue. We offer several elastomer compound options to match user-specific environmental requirements. Whether it’s high temperatures, ozone exposure, or chemical presence, our solutions continue operating without compromise. Maximum tested vertical loads reach up to 450 kN. This ensures that force applied to the pavement remains consistent, avoiding the stress cycle peaks that typically damage roadbeds over time.