Ford\u2019s comprehensive lineup of testing facilities around the world puts vehicles through everything from the extreme, to the everyday, to ensure that only world-class vehicles roll off the production line.<\/p>\n
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Across facilities in Thailand, India, Australia, the Middle East and China, Ford vehicles and components are \u2018shaken, rattled and rolled\u2019 in a variety of tests, some conducted in temperatures ranging from an arctic minus 40 degrees Celsius, to desert-scorching heat of over 50 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n
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The Middle East<\/strong><\/p>\n Based out of Jebel Ali, near Dubai, in the UAE, the engineering team at Ford\u2019s Product Development base take the heat during testing on a daily basis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thanks to extremely high ambient temperatures during the summer months \u2013 and a country covered primarily in sprawling desert landscapes \u2013 hot weather testing in the UAE places vehicles under real world conditions quite unlike that experienced anywhere else on the planet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWith ambient temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, we need to ensure our cooling systems, engine, transmission, driveline systems, and also our passenger comfort are all robust to temperatures like this,\u201d said Ziyad Dallalah, Chief Resident Engineer, Ford Middle East and Africa. \u201cDriving in deep sand places a unique load on the engine and transmission \u2013 with high revs at low speed. That means the engine works very hard, placing demands on systems that rely on the engine for power \u2013 like the air-conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dust and sand can also play havoc with engine internals and suspension components by accelerating wear on moving parts, so the team also monitors sand and dust egress on the engine, dampers and the cabin to make sure every Ford remains a comfortable place to be, even in the peak heat of a Middle East summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thailand and India<\/strong><\/p>\n The Ford labs in Thailand and India are on the frontline of maintaining customer sanity by eliminating the little things about vehicles that drivers can often find exasperating.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At Ford\u2019s \u2018Voice of the Customer\u2019 Fleet facilities at the Ford Thailand Manufacturing (FTM) plant, and Sanand Vehicle Assembly Engine Plant (SVAEP) in India, engineers walk in the shoes of customers, emulating the rough and tumble they might put their vehicle through in a variety of conditions and climates. In one of the labs, an environmental road simulator recreates years of travelling over tricky road surfaces, like cobblestones, to check that there are no annoying squeaks or rattle noises.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hot and cold chambers at both facilities test the functionality of things like the rear liftgate, the hood and electrical features such as the interior heater in temperatures ranging from a sweltering 49 degrees Celsius, to a bone-chillingly low minus 29 degrees. While customers in Thailand and India are pretty unlikely to experience temperatures that low, the team needs to consider customers in the dozens of cold climate countries the Ranger pickup, Everest SUV, EcoSport and Figo are exported to throughout the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTesting our vehicles under controlled environmental conditions gives us the ability to protect our customers by capturing issues associated to varying temperatures and different road surfaces,\u201d said Jay Rada, Asia Pacific Voice of the Customer Fleet Manager, New Model Program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Australia<\/strong><\/p>\n Ford\u2019s You Yangs Proving Ground (YYPG) in the kangaroo-filled paddocks outside Melbourne, Australia is the oldest of Ford\u2019s testing facilities in Asia Pacific, and is also home to some of the most demanding tests conducted anywhere in the industry. Given the rapid changes now underway in the global auto business, Ford\u2019s 950-hectare facility is currently undergoing an upgrade, allowing the company to test a greater range of products and driver assist technologies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the many tests that prototype and pre-production vehicles will undergo at the proving ground is the Total Durability Cycle. This sped-up evaluation runs around the clock, day and night, to simulate 10 years, or 240,000km, of severe customer usage in just a few weeks. Gravel roads, cobblestones, pot-holes, curbs and water baths feature in this grueling test. Just for good measure, environmental factors like dust, water and mud are thrown in, while dynamometers simulate towing heavy loads in traffic and over mountain passes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe reason we go to such extreme lengths of testing is to ensure our customers are buying the best possible vehicle,\u201d said Stephen Andrews, Corrosion Supervisor at Ford\u2019s testing facility in Australia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThese tests push the vehicle much further than your typical consumer would, so we can be confident in the fact they will perform when out in the real world \u2013 and if we find anything untoward during testing stages, we have the opportunity to rectify it,\u201d added Andrews.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another extreme test Ford engineers undertake at the YYPG is the full Vehicle Corrosion Test, which runs for 12 weeks straight, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so vehicles can withstand even the most humid, salty conditions a coastal life can bring.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Consisting of a controlled humidity soaking, followed by a shake-down over various road surfaces, this arduous test exposes the vehicle to salt, dust and gravel, all the while ambient temperatures and humidity levels drop and spring back like a yo-yo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The total accumulated mileage for the Vehicle Corrosion Test is a whopping 10,000km, which represents approximately six years of exposure to such regions as the East Coast of Australia or the West Coast of New Zealand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just when the vehicles think it\u2019s over, all body panels are removed to check out how they fared for corrosion resistance \u2013 even the hidden underbody parts. This process also ensures all areas are assessed for appearance, function and serviceability. Knowing exactly what sections and body parts of the vehicle are effected in certain ways allows Ford\u2019s engineers to better guard against long-term environmental impact.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Nanjing, China<\/strong><\/p>\n Ford\u2019s new environmental chambers in Nanjing, China, takes vehicles to the extreme by shaking, roasting and crashing vehicles to test their performance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first of the three chambers \u2013 the sun-load camber \u2013 recreates hours of a car sitting in relentless sunlight. High-intensity lamps heat the chamber to a peak of 45 degrees Celsius, which causes some parts of the car to reach a scorching 107 degrees \u00ad\u2013hot enough to fry an egg.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To protect against the extreme conditions, Ford engineers who venture inside the chamber to verify the equipment wear an aluminum-coated suit that makes them look like astronauts from a 1960s science fiction movie. The suit is a precaution in case any the metal parts melt and spray in the direction of the engineer while they\u2019re in the chamber, and can protect the wearer from environmental temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDuring these tests we\u2019re looking for any indications that a material or part will change or warp when exposed to heat and intense sunlight,\u201d said Breeze Shi, Test Engineering Supervisor at Ford\u2019s VEV environmental chamber in Nanjing. \u201cAny bubbling or deforming would make us make improvements so that customers won\u2019t face the same issue.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the second chamber, tests replicate what a particular component will experience over 240,000 kilometers on incredibly bumpy roads \u2013 all in a mere 72 hours. Vehicle components are strapped to a multi-axel simulation table \u2013 a hydraulic platform that shakes, and shakes, then shakes some more. If that wasn\u2019t enough, the tests are carried out in conditions ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius to 95 degrees. The tests are a way to assess vehicle performance under extremes of use that aren\u2019t practical to replicate on the test track.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The final test chamber is about a crucial vehicle component that can save your life: airbags. If airbags don\u2019t deploy at the right speed, or safely enough, they can be less effective. The airbag deployment chamber in Nanjing uses ultra-slow motion cameras to record deployment so that Ford\u2019s engineers can critically analyze every millisecond of the process to identify potential problems.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When it comes to safety every detail is important, which is why Ford\u2019s engineers in Nanjing also test airbag deployment in temperatures ranging from negative 40 to 65 degrees Celsius. But this created a problem for Ford\u2019s engineers: the camera equipment can\u2019t operate in those temperatures. To overcome this problem, the engineering team developed an innovative work-around, \u201cWe came up with a rail system that allows us to cool or heat the entire testing mount in a separate chamber, and then roll it into an adjacent room for the actual test,\u201d said Shi. \u201cWe can move the entire system and deploy the test in just two minutes, while the airbag prototype is still really hot or cold.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n