US Patent 11879517 Shock absorber

A shock absorber includes a hard side damping element that imparts a resistance to a flow of liquid moving between an extension side chamber and a compression side chamber, a solenoid valve configured to change an aperture area of a bypass passage that bypasses the hard side damping element and communicates with the extension side chamber and the compression side chamber, a soft side damping element provided in series with the solenoid valve in the bypass passage, and a tank connected to the compression side chamber. The hard side damping element includes an orifice and leaf valves provided in parallel with the orifice. The soft side damping element includes an orifice having a larger aperture area than the orifice.