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The primary season of Westworld had scenes in a high-tech basement the place humanoid robots had been repaired after being “killed.” It was fairly cool, and slightly creepy. Consider it or not, the crash-test dummy lab at Magna’s cavernous R&D facility in Sailauf, Germany appears very related. Much less sinister, although… until you’re a million-dollar model marked for dying.
A few of Magna’s crash check dummies are, the truth is, price over 1,000,000 bucks. And if you wish to be fancy, you possibly can name them Anthropomorphic Take a look at Gadgets (however we received’t). Dummy or ATD, there’s much more to those human-shaped data-gathering instruments than floppy arms and warning tape stripes. We obtained the chance to step into the corporate’s crash lab throughout a tour lately, and now you get the uncommon likelihood to peek contained in the respawn level for a similar crash dummies which have validated numerous vehicles for crashworthiness.
Magna isn’t a reputation model that informal automotive appreciators will essentially know, nevertheless it’s probably the most prolific within the biz. It’s what’s often known as a tier-one provider; it performs an enormous vary of capabilities for automotive firms you do know and drive.
For instance, Magna presently conducts the manufacture of the BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra, Mercedes G-Class, some Minis, some Jaguars, EV batteries, supercar transmissions, gasoline engines, cameras and collision-warning sensors, and extra. The corporate additionally performs its personal analysis and improvement of automotive components, manages provide chains, and does quite a lot of validation for vehicles at varied levels of improvement, amongst different issues.
Crash testing is, after all, a crucial a part of that validation. And in a couple of enormous buildings round Sailauf, which is kind of within the lower-middle space on a map of Germany, Magna does that by throwing vehicles at partitions, ramming spikes by EV batteries, and torturing these closely computerized dummies to find out how secure (or not) automobiles are.
Technically the outfit doing this testing is ACTS GmbH & Co. KG, (stands for “Superior Automobile Know-how Techniques”), which is a subsidiary of Magna. Regardless, lots of vehicles and crash dummies are smashed right here within the identify of science and security. The crew on the lab informed me it usually runs 600 dummy-crewed crash assessments a yr, which apparently interprets to about 3,200 harm occasions for Magna’s dummies in the identical period of time.
There have been 25 dummies on the obligation roster at Sailauf after I was down there, together with simulated males, girls, kids, and a few specialty items like standalone torsos and legs to measure the consequences of accidents in particular situations. No pets but, although.
For infants, I used to be to see what kind of automotive seat is taken into account the gold customary. However because it turns on the market’s no such unit—we had been informed that OEMs prescribe what child seats must be crash-tested for children. So if you happen to’re curious on what seat your automotive’s maker recommends, examine your proprietor’s guide, ask the components desk at a dealership, or attempt Googling round along with your year-make-model.
In some situations of crash analysis, human cadavers have been employed. I used to be grateful that that wasn’t the case at this facility, although. I don’t contemplate myself significantly squeamish however I’d not be in a rush to take a look at precise our bodies being deconstructed by automobiles colliding with concrete.
Whereas a once-warm physique would supply, er, visceral data on the consequences of a crash, Magna’s dummies are much more efficient at quantifying and recording their traumatic experiences.
Magna’s folks stated that crash dummies as we all know them got here into use within the Nineteen Sixties. Those in use at Sailauf at present could be thought of the “third-gen” of their design. And whereas a number of outfits make these dummies, it’s governments that set the crash-measurement requirements to which they’re constructed.
One significantly weird-looking one—actually the one dummy that didn’t have a look at least partially human—was a girthy column. It’s known as a legform, so you possibly can most likely guess what it’s designed to simulate. It’s greater than only a leg, although. With a raft of impression sensors between its “foot” and “pelvis,” it’s made to measure how a lot it’d damage to be run into by a automotive.
Magna does two essential assessments with such a tool to check pedestrian security. The legform is tossed on the hood from a selected angle, and naturally, it’s hit with a bumper.
The employees wheeled out an grownup dummy that had been in-built 2022. We had been informed it price 800,000 euros earlier than any sensors had been mounted as much as it. The raft of small speedometers and gyroscopes and accelerometers and different such issues permits it to report 160 channels of exercise (velocity, drive, ect) in a crash. One other tech stated a full-sized dummy, as geared up, could be about 1,200,000 euros.
Dummies are rebuilt and recalibrated after each crash, and usually rebuilt fully after 10 to twenty accidents, relying on how tough of a life it’s had. One among Magna’s techs informed me that the dummies may basically dwell ceaselessly since they’re so modular and are rebuilt so typically. You get right into a Ship of Theseus state of affairs fairly rapidly whenever you begin making an attempt to calculate a crash-test dummy’s lifespan, although.
Fast apart for these of you who didn’t have a Greek mythology class or do not forget that one scene from that Avengers film: Theseus was a man with a ship, and like most of my vehicles, that ship was repaired so many occasions that, finally, it had not one of the authentic components it left the manufacturing unit with. So “Theseus’ Paradox” asks: Is it nonetheless the identical ship, or is it now a brand new ship?
Whereas scratching my head at that one and fascinated about the Warfare Boys chat from Fury Highway (“We dwell! We die! We dwell once more!”) I requested one of many technicians how a lot injury had been performed to the humanoid torso he had partially dissected on his workbench. He form of laughed and shrugged, gestured to a spiderweb of strange-looking supplies, and basically stated that no single half on the desk was “beneath 1,000 euros.” Ouch certainly!
And naturally, it’s not simply our bodies that should be examined for crashworthiness—it’s the vehicles themselves, and extra lately, EV batteries.
Magna’s essential car-crashing lab at Sailauf appears like a spaceport from science fiction. A chilly, concrete stadium-sized venue with colossal doorways, intimidatingly sturdy robotic armatures, and intense lights is the place vehicles are chucked into obstacles at varied angles, to be studied in slow-motion whereas anyone sweeps up damaged glass.
The central “crash block,” a 100-ton monolith that has killed numerous vehicles, rests in the course of the room surrounded by cameras. As vehicles bounce off it, the outcomes are recorded at a charge of 5,000 frames per second. That offers engineers a really exact have a look at precisely what occurs to their car design at each stage of its demise. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to get any footage of it.
Electrical vehicles current one significantly attention-grabbing new think about crash security: The enormous battery slung beneath the passengers. Whereas EVs get smashed and crashed into the kill block like every part else, EV batteries are presently being torture-tested on their very own too.
Magna runs a spread of assessments on batteries, together with 10,000 energy cycles and simulations of years of use. Batteries are crushed by immensely highly effective squeezers with 250 kilonewtons, or greater than 50,000 kilos of drive for statement. However probably the most thrilling battery crucible is what’s known as “the nail check.” Within the nail check, an EV battery is positioned right into a particular containment field and spiked with a 6-millimeter nail. That forces the battery to short-circuit, and inevitably, catch fireplace. Engineers watch this course of by a protected digicam and take notes.
One among Magna’s folks talked about that the burn charge of EV batteries was inconsistent. I suppose working the identical check with the identical battery generally yielded a fast fireplace whereas different occasions it took longer. I suppose that’s why these conditions are nonetheless being studied.
We weren’t allowed to take many footage, as a result of a couple of prototype gadgets from OEMs had been in varied states of dismantlement across the facility. However I can present one final attention-grabbing element from my journey to Magna’s Sailauf services: Its EV battery fireplace exhaust system.
An enormous battery burning makes lots of noxious smoke, and that’s obtained to go someplace. Earlier than it makes it to the environment, emissions from a battery burn undergo water, like a bong, after which are washed once more by a charcoal filter. The exhaust rig seemed prefer it may need taken up as a lot sq. footage because the burn field itself.
Sadly, that’s all I can actually share about Magna’s security and crash-testing operation in Bavaria. Working with a number of, generally rival, automakers and growing quite a few prototypes requires a excessive degree of safety and vagueness in solutions to questions on future automobiles.
Nonetheless, I did come away with an elevated appreciation for the complexity of crash testing. The crash dummies I met weren’t fairly as charismatic as Vince and Larry, however I’m glad there are good robots going to work on the smash manufacturing unit day in and day trip to assist make our vehicles safer.
