Last week, Toyota officially opened its new R&D and safety testing facility near Ann Arbor, MI. Toyota invested nearly $200 million in the 700-acre complex, which includes 350,000 square-feet of engineering and design space and a 180,000-square-foot crash test facility.
Here’s what the local newspapers have to say about the new facility:
October 14th, 2008
NI has recently released three app notes that many automotive engineers will find useful:
October 9th, 2008
The Pickering 40-265 provides 6 channels of strain gauge simulation with high simulation accuracy and performance. Each channel provides a full bridge circuit with very fine resistance control of better than 2 milliohm in one bridge arm, allowing the 40-265 to emulate the operation of a strain gauge bridge circuit. The bridge can be excited by a fixed internal supply or by independent external bridge voltage sources, permitting direct connection to strain gauge measuring systems.
Simulating a resistive strain gauge can be a difficult task; The change in resistance value caused by applying stress to a strain gauge is extremely small (typically 0.1%) and requires very fine control of the resistance value. Many users resort to in house methods of simulation which are hard to support and lack traceability, or they have to adapt commercial products that provide very limited performance.
October 7th, 2008
Agilent Technologies has expanded its U1071A line of Acqiris two-channel, high-speed PCI digitizers. The product line now includes new models that offer additional functionality that can be combined with the series’ large memory capacity of up to 256 MSamples, making the digitizers ideal for use in a wider range of applications, including automated test equipment for production test and validation.
The new 200 MHz (U1071A-004) version features a sampling rate of up to 1 GS/s as well as a multimodule synchronization option, which can be used to create tailored, high-performance systems. When more than two data-acquisition channels are required, up to three digitizers can be synchronized using the 2 GHz auto-synchronization bus. This distributes both the clock and trigger signals among the digitizers in the system. It allows any digitizer to generate the trigger, while the central digitizer acts as the common synchronous clock source. With up to six synchronous acquisition channels, applications requiring high-speed measurement around 3D space, or 3-phase electricity can now be integrated into a single desktop PC.
October 7th, 2008
Spectris plc, Roylston, UK, has signed an agreement to acquire the LDS Test & Measurement business from SPX Corporation. The purchase consideration of US$102 million, on a debt and cash-free basis, will be met from existing cash and bank facilities and is subject to routine balance sheet adjustments.
LDS manufactures integrated vibration test and measurement equipment and software for applications in the aerospace, defence, automotive, machinery, electrical and electronics markets. The company will become part of the Spectris Test and Measurement segment in combination with Bruel & Kjaer Sound and Vibration and HBM.
This acquisition comes on the heels of the purchase of Siemens’ Machine Vision Business, formerly Acuity CiMatrix, and nCode.
October 2nd, 2008
The Turbo Technics Vane-Flow Test Rig (VTR) is the first commercially available aftermarket turbocharger variable geometry calibration system. It will allow the industry for the first time to calibrate actuation systems and as a result, offer remanufactured variable geometry turbochargers to the end user at significantly lower costs than a brand new item.
The VTR allows the remanufacturer to set two crucial parameters on variable geometry systems; the minimum opening of the vanes and the operating range of the vane movement. The turbocharger under test is mounted to the VTR and the on-board computer system controls the airflow and measurement through the turbine housing and compares this against the data stored for that turbocharger model.
September 30th, 2008
Automotive DesignLine warns, “Inadequate EMC test means cars could be unsafe.”
It notes:
Clearly untested electromagnetic interferences could lead to dangerous failures on the road.
and
Mysterious malfunctions of electronic or electrical equipment, which may be inconvenient or annoying when the car is stationary, may endanger drivers and passengers at high-speed or if a vehicle is left stranded in a dangerous position.
This article links to another by Keith Armstrong of Cherry Clough Consultants, ‘Why EMC testing is insufficient, and what is necessary’ that says that automotive EMC test methods have not kept pace with the electronics now in cars and that there is a real possibility that the tests are not finding all of the potential EMC problems.
September 30th, 2008
Landmint.com reports that a delay in land allotment by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has stalled a Rs100 crore centre in Rae Bareli planned as part of the National Automotive Testing R&D Infrastructure Project, or Natrip, said a senior official associated with the project.
The Rae Bareli unit, which was to employ 500 people, was one of seven planned by the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises as part of a Rs1,718 crore project aimed at creating an advanced testing, validation and R&D infrastructure for the domestic, as well as global, automotive industry.
Once operational, the Rae Bareli unit would become the nodal centre for homologation, or road-worthiness certification, for tractors, three-wheelers, construction equipment vehicles; would house a road accident data analysis facility; and have a training facility for at least 1,000 drivers of specialized, off-the-road vehicles. It will also be associated with the National Safety Board, proposed by the ministry of road transport and highways in November 2007, with the objective of undertaking systematic analysis of road fatalities and other crucial aspects related to accidents. About 80,000 people die in road accidents every year in India.
September 30th, 2008
Buoyed by initial road-test results and significant technological advancements, UPS announced the U.S. deployment of its first three large package delivery vehicles utilizing hydrogen fuel cells for power.
The first fuel cell Dodge Sprinter was deployed in Los Angeles, CA. The remaining two Sprinters will be deployed in Sacramento and Ann Arbor, Mich. Compared to the first Sprinter, the new fuel cell Sprinters feature a 20% increase in power-train efficiency; a 40% increase in range to 155 miles, and a 45% increase in peak engine power. They now have similar acceleration as a gas- or diesel-powered UPS vehicle.
The vehicles in their new configuration also offer a 10% increase in cargo capacity compared to the diesel-powered Sprinters now in use by UPS, and the fuel cell technology eliminates the need to house an engine in the front of the vehicle, making it easier to explore new automotive designs, he added.
One of the remaining hurdles is the need for more hydrogen refueling stations
September 29th, 2008
Anthony Best Dynamics (ABD) has launched a new version of the company’s successful Suspension Parameter Measurement Machine (SPMM) that can be used for dynamic Kinematic and Compliance (K&C) testing as well as quasi-static testing. The SPMM 4000 HS meets an industry requirement to reduce the time from concept to manufacturing a new vehicle, with increased use of computer analysis and prediction techniques. It can measure suspension characteristics that are important to ride and handling in a wide range of vehicles from the smallest passenger cars to light trucks and MPVs.
Like the existing SPMM 4000 system, the new SPMM 4000 HS can be supplied as either a two or four wheel station machine. The four wheel station model will measure both axles of a vehicle simultaneously and provide a fast turnaround of just a few hours for producing a full suite of suspension and steering measurements for a vehicle. This has been further aided by the development of wheel centring compensation software which reduces vehicle set up time, as it is no longer necessary to manually centre the wheel plates when they are attached to the wheels.
In operation, the SPMM automatically subjects the suspension and steering of a vehicle to a variety of forces and displacements and measures the effects. Dynamic testing has been made possible by equipping the new system with high speed actuators capable of vertical excitation at frequencies of 5 Hz at speeds of 140 mm/s. It utilises ‘Dynamic wheel pad force control’ software which can accurately control wheelpad forces at frequencies of 5 Hz.
The SPMM 4000 HS records the wheel displacements and the forces and moments occurring at the tyre to road interface, caused by bounce, roll and pitch of the vehicle body and also by the application of simulated cornering, braking and traction forces. These include the kinematic characteristics due to suspension and steering system geometries, and compliances due to suspension springs, anti-roll bars, elastomeric bushes and component deformations.
September 25th, 2008
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