Premium Chinese vehicle manufacturers invest in sophisticated chassis testing equipment
Two leading Chinese vehicle manufacturers have invested in AB Dynamics’ Suspension Parameter Measurement Machine (SPMM). They will utilize the equipment to improve the vehicle dynamic performance of their products and benchmark their competition from around the world.
“We have seen a significant increase in interest from China for our chassis testing equipment within the last decade,” said Matthew Dustan, Laboratory Test Systems Director. “Chinese manufacturers are investing heavily to develop vehicles for both the growing Chinese domestic market and setting their sights on exporting vehicles to compete with their much longer-established competitors from Europe, the US and elsewhere in Asia, particularly in the EV sector. Improving the refinement of vehicles and how they ride and handle is a key part of this. Our SPMMs enable manufacturers to benchmark a vehicle’s chassis and suspension very quickly and accurately.”
The SPMM is a Kinematics and Compliance (K&C) test machine designed to simulate the on-road behaviour of a vehicle’s chassis. It measures and analyses the suspension’s K&C characteristics, which enables engineers to understand the vehicle’s ride, handling and steering performance. The data generated can be used to benchmark existing products, develop simulation models, verify new designs, resolve problems and monitor product quality.
At the centre of the SPMM 5000e is the moving table which is precisely controlled in six degrees of freedom by precision electromechanical actuators, so that a combination of roll, pitch, bounce and yaw motion can be applied to the vehicle body. This design means the ground plane (road) remains fixed during vehicle cornering and braking simulations as it would driving on the road.
The SPMM is configured with either two or four-wheel stations. These apply X, Y and Delta forces and displacements to each wheel and then measure the resultant wheel forces, moments and displacements. It also measures the motion of the wheel centre in six degrees of freedom. Both OEMs have purchased a four-wheel-station SPMM 5000e, one of which has already been delivered.
All axes are driven by electromechanical actuators. This provides the operator with a safe, clean and quiet environment where vehicle behaviour can be closely observed. They apply precise inputs to the vehicle at frequencies up to 5Hz. The resultant wheel movement and force measurements are automatically processed using MATLAB scripts to produce an informative report, and input files for popular modelling packages, such as CarSim and CarMaker, can be automatically generated.
“Introduced in 1995, the SPMM is one of our most established product lines,” said Dustan. “All of our SPMMs are still in use more than 25 years after they were first delivered, which has been possible through regular software updates and upgrade options that enable the machine to accommodate evolving vehicle designs. Our latest version, the 5000e, has been updated to accommodate a wider range of vehicle sizes and features the latest electromechanical actuators and computer software.”
