Vehicles have become so reliable that now consumers are making purchase decisions based on more subtle details like cockpit noise—this has driven automotive manufacturers to develop state-of-the-art NVH test facilities around the world. In order to serve this market more effectively, we have made a major investment to develop the next generation of NVH dynamometers. An example of this is our 50 dB pass-by NVH dynamometer that was installed at the PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center) facility in the summer of 2006.

The machine at the PATAC facility consisted of four 1905 mm (75-inch) rolls, driven by independent, 200 hp drives. When a customer makes an investment of this magnitude it is important to ensure that testing time is maximized and setup time is minimized—it is equally important that the system has the flexibility to perform the testing required. Our next generation design addressed all of these concerns. First, it was designed with an automatic recalculating floor to allow for easy adjustment of the wheelbase without having to manipulate heavy floor planks. It also includes a neutral vertical load restraint system that can be easily adjusted to accommodate the full spectrum of vehicles. Finally, in order to provide the ability to simulate a variety of road surfaces, the rollers were designed to enable custom fit road shells to be attached for testing.

Additionally, our D3 control system provides the user with an integrated editor that enables them to quickly author and execute custom test sequences while maintaining all of the support for full manual control. The customizable monitors on our system is also another powerful feature—users can customize screens with the data that they need to monitor for the current vehicle under test and display it on multiple screens. This ensure that all of the important data is captured. All of these features are complemented by the ability to provide emissions class inertial simulation, making this an evolutionary step in dynamometer control systems.