Developed countries in the automobile industry, in the early days, mainly engaged in research and development of new products around reducing the frictional resistance of the steering gear, improving the positive efficiency of the steering gear and increasing the stiffness.
Rack and pinion steering gear has been used in Mercedes-Benz cars for a long time. Before 1920, many brands of cars used this steering gear, so this steering gear is one of the earliest steering gears, which has been used for more than 100 years. history. The rack and pinion steering gear used in the early days is composed of a spur gear and a spur rack, which not only has poor motion stability, but also has relatively large impact and noise. In addition, the angle between the pinion axis and the rack axis can only be a right angle, which is difficult to meet the overall layout requirements. With the development of the automobile industry, its structure has been continuously improved. A steering gear in which the helical spur gear meshes with the helical rack and pinion is developed, which overcomes the shortcomings of the previous structure. At present, rack-and-pinion steering gears are widely used in all levels of cars, and as the production of front-engine front-wheel-drive cars continues to expand, the application prospects of rack-and-pinion steering gear will be very broad, because it will make the steering rod system becomes simpler. In the early 1980s, the miniature trucks produced in my country began to use rack-and-pinion steering gear. At present, most domestic cars use this type of steering gear.