1. automotive and vehicles
2. cars

Unit7: Testing
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WEATHER TESTING
Everyone complains about the weather, but auto engineers are doing something about
it.
1. Automakers have built high-tech test chambers so engineers can evaluate
products in different environments, ranging from -40 degrees to 130 degrees.
2. A model may spend 200 hours in a wind tunnel as researchers and stylists work
to lower wind resistance and improve mileage. Aerodynamic drag accounts for
about 20% of the energy a vehicle needs just to move through normal air
resistance.
DURABILITY TESTING
An auto needs to withstand years of tough duty, so researchers keep studying how to
extend a vehicle’s life… inside and out.
1. Even seats are tested for durability. Using robots, automakers research how
people of all shapes and sizes affect the upholstery, seat cushions and seat
structures over the life of the vehicle.
2. High performance extends to car doors too. It takes 84,000 open-and-close
cycles to simulate 10 years of customer use of a car door. This testing happens
in a wide range of temperatures, just like real life. Automakers test and perfect
their products at huge, company-owned proving grounds, which include roads
designed to replicate real-world conditions… with potholes, bumps and all.
Despite the fastest computers and sophisticated test chambers, a model still
needs to be tested in the real world.
3. Many operations of a vehicle can be simulated by computer, but engineers need
to understand how different systems in an auto interact with each other. Often
that can only be done through actual use.
4. It’s a global industry and testing is worldwide, too. A model may be driven in
extremeconditions like the jungles of Brazil and the mountains of New Zealand.
Research in the Southern Hemisphere can extend the seasons for testing and
speed up development. To test for durability, an automaker can easily rack up 2
million miles of on-road andtrack testing on a single model of vehicle. That
equates to 80 trips around the world.
TESTED, RE-TESTED, CERTIFIED… ON THE ROAD TO MARKET
As one of the most regulated products in the marketplace, the automobile undergoes
rigorous processes to become certified according to engineering and regulatory
standards.
1. Through the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), 14,000 mobility experts in
100+ countries have provided data resulting in more than 2,600 globally
recognized standards for motor vehicle transport.
2. An auto must comply with more than 200 government safety and environmental
regulations in the U.S. alone. Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which
is the section addressing environment, is actually longer than the U.S. tax code.
CASE STUDY:
Substantial changes to the federal law on occupant crash protection (FMVSS 208)
added
50 tests to the auto development cycle, including new crash tests, new test dummies
and new airbag requirements.
Results from any one of these tests can require vehicle changes, from simple
recalibrations to significant re-design and re-testing.
Testing Equipments:
Advanced Battery Analyzer
Description:
Advanced battery analyzers are largely used in the automobile industry to restore and
increase the life of batteries used in vehicles. The advanced battery analyzers are
responsible for cycling, rapid testing and boosting of automobile batteries.
Applications
Advanced battery analyzers are commonly used in the
following areas:
Durability Tester
Description:
The Durability Tester is an instrument mainly used in the automobile industry for
conducting durability tests on car seats. The test method involves conducting a
cyclic endurance test on seat tilt gear motors, which are attached to the actual seats.
They can be also be used for performing durability test on car seat heaters.
Testing of basic materials and system component used for seat heaters is very
important in automotive industry Durability testers can also be used for testing vehicle's
key lock. The equipment is simple to use and can be easily adjusted.
Applications
The equipment finds application in the following
areas:
Endurance Tester
Description:
Endurance testers are mainly used for conducting endurance test on various parts and
components of automobiles. Endurance testing is extremely important in automobile
industry because it ascertains the life of various automobile components and parts
under extreme conditions of pressure, temperature and vibration.
Besides this, endurance testing of vehicles provides a system analysis that confirms
that a part or component or system will perform well in a specific application. This also
confirms the capacity of the vehicle's components to withstand off-road use and
abuse.
Applications
Endurance testers are used in the following areas:
Flammability Tester
Description:
Flammability Testers are mainly used for testing the flammability and resistance to
propagation of flame of materials used in the interiors of motor vehicles. The
apparatus also determines the comparative burn rates of cloth, including pile and
napped cloth.
Salient Features
nsists of a horizontal flame or combustion chamber made of
stainless steel sheet, in which test is carried out.
chamber for observing the test
specimen
during test.
test specimen holder, used for mounting the test specimen during test.
array of timers, which controls the flame application time and
measures the flame time.
-set type electronic timer, which starts automatically as soon as the test
specimen is brought in position above the Bunsen burner.
Flow Testers
Description:
Flow Testers are used to conduct accelerated stress tests of multiple components or
systems of automobiles during simultaneous exposure to thermal cycling and vibration.
The equipment is mainly used to perform flow tests on engine and chassis components
if an automobile. The engine coolant pressure of automobiles is also measured using
flow tester.
Salient Features
hod involves pressure cycle and flow testing of a chilled or heated engine
coolant mixture.
mplished by passing the coolant mixture through radiators, hoses, heater
cores and overflow recovery tanks.
ent also requires environmental chambers and vibration controllers as an
interface for synchronization to other machines.
vity of coolant mixture at high temperature is accomplished by pump
selection; pump and plumbing; and suction pressure and relative mounting locations of
reservoir.
Fuel Injection Test Kit
Description:
The fuel injection test kit is widely used for testing fuel injection systems on motor
vehicles. The kit helps to find out any problem in filter or regulator of the vehicle.
Salient Features
The important features of the fuel injection test kit are:
with hoses, hose clamps, and hose barb fittings to adjust with
any model of vehicle.
des different types of adapters and gauges for checking various
systems.
el pressure test kit that tests fuel injection pressure systems on most
domestic and imported models of cars and trucks.
Gas Analyzer
Description:
Gas analyzers are devices used to analyze exhaust gases from automobile or
motorcycle engines. They take care of the fact that a vehicle comply to regulatory limits
and also helps to improve fuel consumption of vehicles and manufacture better
models of car and engines. Analysis of exhaust gases has become very important
factor in other types of engines, like those used in ships, aircrafts, construction
equipment and generators. Hence advanced gas analyzers are also designed to meet
these requirements.
Applications
Some of the areas where the gas analyzers find
application are:
e
Impact Or Crush Testers
Description:
An impact test or crash test is a type of destructive testing commonly performed to
assure safe design standards for automobiles or related components. An
impact tester or crash tester is an equipment, which is used to evaluate the aftermath of
loose cargo impacts during motor vehicle collisions, and the energy absorption
properties of rubber materials.
Applications
Impact tester are widely used in the many fields. Some of its common applications are:
Torsional Fatigue Tester
Description:
The equipment is used to perform torsional fatigue endurance testing of power
transmission components such as clutch and torque converters; and steering
system components of various automobiles.
The test method involves the installation of a high temperature chamber to
Examine dynamic features of various automobile components.
Applications
The torsional fatigue tester finds application in the following areas:
Vibration Tester
Description:
Vibration tester is an equipment widely used in the automotive industry for conducting
vibration testing on various parts and accessories of automobiles. Various automotive
components and their accessories are continuously subjected to vibration testing using
sophisticated vibration control techniques.
Various automotive components ranging from instrument panels to seats inside the car;
and from airbag sensors to fuel injection pumps in the engine compartment,
Are being tested to examine vibration patterns and levels.
Applications
Vibration testers are widely used for conducting vibration tests on various automobile
parts & components. Some other areas where they are used are:
> Automotive Industry
> Environmental Stress Testing
> Aerospace
> Military/Defense
> Microelectronics
Testing a Car
Testing a car in the United States is a long, expensive and often tedious process. The
manufacturers' goal is to make a vehicle that meets established government safety
standards, that will stand up to normal consumer use while incurring minimal warranty
claims and will hit that sweet spot between customer demand and profitability.
One of the more well-known tests is crash testing. You may know the slow-motion films
of cars being crash tested with dummies inside "playing" car passengers. Depending on
the purpose of the film, the mannequin either goes flying through the windshield, or is
protected by a car seatbelt and airbag. Manufacturers like to sound the proverbial
trumpet when one of their vehicles, especially a family-oriented vehicle, scores well in
government and independent crash-safety tests.
In the United States, the two main bodies that conduct crash safety testing are the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration. Both operate independently of the automobile industry.
In addition to crash testing, automakers must track a plethora of quality measurements.
These tests are conducted by the manufacturers themselves to refine their vehicles as
much as possible. Here are a few questions that manufacturers may tackle:
1. How noisy is it inside the cabin? How much noise comes from the engine? How
much is wind noise?
2. How much noise is created by tires contacting the pavement?
3. How much vibration is there at different speeds?
4. How fast does the air conditioning system or heater kick in?
5. Does the amount of quality and luxury match other products in this brand? Does
it equal or exceed competitive offerings?
6. Are we meeting our own standards for how neat and precise the fine details on
the car are?
7. What drive train combination will give us optimal fuel efficiency while satisfying
emissions requirements?
8. How do we reduce weight and waste without compromising safety or comfort?
9. How does the car perform in extreme conditions?
If that seems like a lot to keep track of, that's because it is. However, automakers
typically assign specialized teams to address each one of these questions so that they
can come up with the best solutions in short order.
Depending on what's being measured or tested, engineers can make changes on the
spot. In other cases, test findings may require an extensive rethinking of how a part or
set of parts function. To make sure the entire testing process stays reasonably on
schedule, manufacturers make multiple "test mules," or pre-production cars, for testing.
This way, multiple systems can be designed and experimented with at once.
Car Testing Criteria
Testing automobiles is expensive. The automobile prototypes, or test mules, can cost
several hundred thousand dollars, even for so-called economy cars. Furthermore, it
requires paying the salaries of teams of engineers, paying for the costs of special
measuring equipment, and shelling out for meals and accommodations for these small
armies when they must conduct their experiments away from their main offices.
Therefore, an entry-level commuter car would not be subjected to the same testing
criteria as a Corvette, which GM wants to market as a "world class" car. And that
Corvette, likewise, would not be subjected to the same off-road rigors as a
rugged Hummer.
Sometimes manufacturers get valuable design and engineering data from sources
outside of their official test programs for preproduction vehicles. Some of these sources
include:
1. Quality surveys by companies like J.D. Power and Associates
2. Independent media and customer reviews of existing vehicles
3. Observing trends in popular culture in how people modify their vehicles after
purchase
4. Using racing innovations to make production cars faster or safer
For all their contributions to automotive advancement, test cars almost always meet an
unpleasant fate. Since they're typically unfinished works that can't be sold and put under
warranty, most test mules are simply sent to the crusher once their work is done. This
fate was made controversially apparent in the documentary "Who Killed the Electric
Car?" After General Motors decided to abandon the EV1 electric car program against
thewishes of EV1 supporters, the company faced a storm of controversy as they hauled
thevehicles away to be destroyed. Ford faced similar outrage in 2004, when it decided
to pull the plug on its electric car experiment with its Think model, which it had leased to
customers willing to test it.
A public relations nightmare for Ford ensued when word leaked that the company
planned to destroy the cars after the three-year test period. The company eventually
relented by agreeing to ship the cars back to Norway where they were produced.
While those particular decisions were socially and politically charged because of their
environmental overtones, the fact is that test cars are routinely destroyed once
manufacturers no longer need them.
Crash test
Crash test dummies have been the subject of public service announcements, cartoons,
parodies, even the name of a band. Real crash test dummies, however, are true
lifesavers as an integral part of automotive crash tests. Even though cars get a little
safer each year, and fatality rates are declining, car crashes are still one of the leading
causes of death and injury
One of the reasons cars have been getting safer is because of a well-established
testing program. In this article, you'll learn all about automotive crash testing, including
crash test programs, ratings, dummies and future improvements. You'll be amazed at
how much thought and preparation goes into making sure that safe cars are on the
roads!
Fuel economy test
Fuel economy is measured under controlled conditions in a laboratory using a
standardized
test procedure specified by federal law. Manufacturers test their own vehicles—usually
preproduction prototypes and report the results to EPA.
EPA reviews the results and confirm about 10-15 percent of them through their own
tests at the National Vehicles and Fuel Emissions Laboratory.
In the laboratory, the vehicle's drive wheels are placed on a machine called a
dynamometer that simulates the driving environment—much like an exercise bike
simulates cycling. The energy required to move the rollers can be adjusted to account
for wind resistance and the vehicle's weight.