The most cost-effective way for car’s components functional verification. For the development of vehicle occupant protection systems for vehicles and similar applications, Kimeca has developed a crash test sled system that is also used for development and testing of frontal, side, and head airbags, vehicle and aerospace seats, seat belt systems, and other interior parts, and also is used to test components such as high-voltage batteries, locks, hinges, and fastenings to secure loads under real-life conditions.
Sled testing allows engineers to reproduce the dynamic conditions of a full-scale crash event in a controlled environment and at a fraction of the cost of a crash test. Typically such tests are conducted to represent a simple frontal collision. However, even very complex crash events, such as those created by impacts involving two moving vehicles, can be modeled by a sled system.
Crash Test Sled System
ComponentsPropulsion or Launching System
The propulsion system uses pressurized air to launch the sled to desired velocities. In order to reach the desired velocity the user must specify a pressure value into a HMI (Human Machine Inteface) and press the start button. The contols systems (Siemens PLC) starts the test cycle:
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Extract the damper rod
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Moves sled to the starting end ot the tracks (opposite side of the impact possition)
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Sled stops reaching the launching point
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Compressed air starts increasing pressure until the specified value at HMI
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PLC is monitoring the air pressure and when pressure is reached,
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Control systems release sled
The propulsion system has really good accuracy and repeatability.
Decelerator: Hydraulic Variable Damper
Maximum Mass to decelerate: 2.5 Tons @ 100 km/h impact speed
Maximum Decelertation: 100g @ 100 km/h impact speed
Aluminum Gravity Cast Sled
Light weight aluminum sled with very good strength with just 450 kg mass. It can withstand crashes of: 50 km/h impact velocity, 30g deceleration.
Steel Sled
Very strong sled for critical crash conditions: 100 km/h impact velocity, 100g deceleration and 2000 kg payload.
Control System
- PLC
- Human Machine Interface (HMI)
- Sensors
- Actuators
