Volvo’s Crash-Test Facility In Torslanda Turns 10 Years Old

Volvo’s crash-test centre in Torslanda is now 10 years old. There has been about 3,000 full-scale tests carried out to help Volvo achieve the highest maximum safety possible.

The crash facility uses the latest camera technology which can video up to 200,000 frames per second and movable and fixed tracks for various types of collisions.

Two of the tracks will meet above a six-meter deep, Plexiglas-covered, pit which is used for filming the collision from underneath. This approach has helped the automaker with various fixes for safety anomalies to their vehicles.

“We can replicate most of the incident and accident scenarios that take place out on the roads. By analysing these and then testing new safety technology in the crash-test laboratory, we can improve the safety level in our cars so that they become even safer in real-life traffic conditions,” says Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor at Volvo Cars.

Volvo can create head-on collisions, as well as wall cash-block tests where the vehicle collides with a wall.

The Swedish automaker owns over 100 crash test dummies in the form of men, woman and children in different sizes and ages.

Crash-test laboratory – Milestones 2000-2010

• 2000 – The new crash-test laboratory is inaugurated on 29 March by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. It is one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the world.
• 2000 – Tests of central road dividers made by wires.
• 2001 – Volvo Cars is appointed Centre of Excellence for safety within the parent corporation, Ford Motor Company. Over the following years, many crash tests are carried out on various models from Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Ford of Europe in Volvo’s high-tech crash-test laboratory. The laboratory is also used by Volvo Trucks.
• 2002 – A new test rig for roll-over tests is demonstrated. The media are invited to witness a roll-over test of the new Volvo XC90.
• 2003 – Media activity involving a crash test in which the company’s largest model, the XC90, drives into the side of the smallest model in the range, the Volvo S40, at 50 km/h.
• 2007 – The 2000^th crash test is carried out in May.
• 2008 – A new set of digital high-speed cameras is installed. They can take 200 000 frames a second and this advanced technology provides enhanced scope for studying in minute detail exactly what happens to the test dummies and the car in a collision.
• 2008 – New test rig that creates a unique possibility to film the car from below when it hits a lamppost or tree.
• 2010 – The crash-test laboratory – which is still one of the most advanced in the automotive industry – celebrates its 10^th anniversary by performing three different types of complex crash tests during one day in front of 100 invited journalists.  A record in itself! All told, almost 3,000 crash tests have been carried out in the laboratory during its first ten years of operation.

Volvo Cars Safety Centre Facts

• The Volvo Cars Safety Centre is designed to carry out advanced crash tests that contribute to increased knowledge and the development of safer Volvo cars. The laboratory makes it possible to replicate most of the accident scenarios that occur in real-life traffic.

• The crash-test laboratory was inaugurated in 2000.

• The crash test laboratory has a capacity to carry out more than 400 full-scale tests per year.

• The crash-test laboratory has one fixed (154 metre) and one movable (108 metres) test track. The movable test track can be moved from 0 to 90 degrees to perform crashes such as frontal impacts, rear end collisions, side impacts, and collisions between two moving cars at different angles and speeds.

• On the fixed test track, the maximum speed for a passenger car is 120 km/h. On the movable test track, maximum speed is 80 km/h. The speeds on each test track can be regulated independently of one another.

• Point of impact precision in a test in which two moving cars hit at 50 km/h is 2.5 centimetres, corresponding to two thousandths of a second. By comparison, the blink of a human eye takes about 60 thousandths of a second.

• On the fixed track it is also possible to crash-test trucks at speeds of up to 80 km/h.

• Crash tests on both test tracks can also be carried out in the opposite direction. At the other end of the fixed test track there is a 15×70 metre concrete slab that is used for various tests such as rollovers. At the other end of the movable test track, the surrounding landscape is an integrated part of the crash-test laboratory. Here crash tests are carried out against a variety of objects found in the traffic environment.

• At the point where the two test tracks meet, there is a 6 metre deep, Plexiglas-covered pit for filming crash tests from below. The cameras that film the tests from above are installed in a rig 11 metres above the point of impact.

• All told there are about 50 high-speed cameras. The fastest can take 200 000 frames per second. The smallest cameras can be used to study the way in which small components inside the cars are affected by the collision forces.

• The laboratory’s crash block weighs 850 tonnes. It is moved with the help of an air cushion technique. Different types of crash test barriers can be built on three sides of the block.

• In addition, there are around 20 other barriers to support Volvos own extensive testing, based on knowledge from real life situations, as well as the various official test requirements.

• Volvo Cars’ also performs crash tests in a unique crash test simulator using a reinforced car body with the actual interior that is to be tested. The crash simulator can recreate the tipping, or pitch, in real-life collisions without destroying the car body. It can also simulate intrusion into the passenger compartment, using ten pistons representing different parts of the car.

• A new car model that is being crash tested in the lab has already been tested thousands of times in Volvo’s computers. In the computer a crash test can efficiently be simulated a number of times with different parameters without destroying a car.

• Volvo Cars also has some 100 crash-test dummies of different types to represent men, women and children of different sizes, weights and ages. There are different dummies used for different situations and different purposes e.g. frontal crash test dummies, side impact dummies and rear end dummies.