The figure shows the possible designs.
The degressive characteristic "3" has to be assigned to the operating diagram with the largest surface area, and hence the design indicates the highest mean damping. When compared to designs "1" and "2", the gradient at the zero point is higher, implying a relatively large damping force at low piston speeds. This has an unfavourable effect on the damping capacity of the suspension for small road unevenness, which however brings certain advantages from the point of view of roll and pitch damping.
The progressive damping in "1" is advantageous since the forces around the zero point are small and hence favours smooth rolling comfort, even for hard tires. The piston forces, which significantly rise at higher piston speeds, cause an increase of wheel and body damping, which positively affects the contact to the ground on bad road surfaces.
The mean damping is lower than in the case of the degressive dimensioning "3", as shown in the operating diagram.