This facility has been established to perform vehicle impact tests as part of our activities for developing and testing vehicle occupant restraint systems. The testing facility has a universal impact area with a mobile crash block and pit for filming underneath vehicles. The area is also used for rollover testing inside the building and for performing component or sub-structure tests during vehicle developments. It is possible to test vehicles with a test weight of up to 8 tonnes at speeds ranging from 4 km/h to 125 km/h.
Additionally tests involving the crash block – for which all of the regulatory frontal barriers are available – the facility can also perform tests simulating rear-end collisions and side impacts. For rear impacts the development vehicle is typically positioned stationary and is impacted by a moving barrier. Similar conditions are used for side impacts, where either the vehicle is impacted by a moving barrier, or the vehicle can be moved on a flying-floor trolley to impact a stationary pole. For development of vehicle structures, we test partial vehicle bodies to develop innovative structural elements for serial production and perform investigations on new materials and concepts. For this work, we can utilize a force-wall, equipped with sensors to measure impact forces and also a special pole, developed in-house, with triaxial sensors to measure impact force. The mobile crash block allows us to measure force in 30-degree frontal impacts and its flexibility also allows us to implement new collision conditions (e.g. the IIHS small overlap barrier).
The crash facility allows rollover tests to be performed indoors, including kerb trip, soil trip, and corkscrew rollovers as well as launched rollovers as described in the US FMVSS 208 legislation. In the outdoor area, embankment rollovers are tested using a natural embankment on an extended area of the crash track.
In conclusion, the testing facility covers all of the collision conditions, for frontal, side, rear and rollover, for consumer or legislative bodies in all World markets.
