Phòng thí nghiệm va chạm Úhelnice của Škoda gần Mladá Boleslav có nhà thi đấu dài gần 200 mét cùng hệ thống thử va chạm từ phía trước, bên hông, phía sau và đối đầu. Cơ sở dùng hệ thống đẩy 600 kW và giá đèn 250 kW để quay tốc độ cao và ghi lại dữ liệu cảm biến.
Phòng thí nghiệm hỗ trợ phát triển và thử nghiệm chuẩn hóa, gồm Euro NCAP và các tiêu chuẩn khu vực khác, đồng thời lưu giữ xe và dữ liệu đã thử để xác minh.
Đường đua va chạm sử dụng hệ thống truyền động Messring 600 kW có khả năng kéo hai xe đạt 65 km/h hoặc một xe đạt 120 km/h. Đường dài 80 mét đủ để thử nghiệm đối đầu giữa hai xe; toàn bộ đường dùng cho tốc độ cao hơn.
Mảng đèn 250 kW có thể chiếu sáng lên đến 120 kilolux lên xe và hỗ trợ tối đa 20 camera đặt quanh khu vực va chạm để ghi lại hình ảnh độ phân giải cao và theo dõi điểm đánh dấu phục vụ phân tích.
Xe thử nghiệm bị hư hỏng được giữ lại để kiểm tra sau và tất cả dữ liệu thử nghiệm—đoạn phim camera và các đầu ra cảm biến—đều được lưu trữ. Khu vực này còn có phòng thí nghiệm chuyên biệt để chuẩn bị các hình nộm va chạm.
The growing demand for car safety makes testing even more challenging. Skoda has its own state-of-the-art crash test lab. Explore with Skoda.
Crash testing has come a long way in the 50 years since it was first carried out in the Czech Republic. Skoda has played a key role in this. Crash testing is now carried out in a state-of-the-art, modern laboratory at the Úhelnice test polygon near Mladá Boleslav.
Lab or studio?
In the nearly 200-meter-long hall, Skoda can carry out an incredible range of tests, from frontal collisions with solid obstacles, collisions where a barrier or pillar hits the side of the car and various rear-end collisions, to head-on collisions between two cars.
The crash track lighting system runs at 250 kW and can illuminate the vehicle up to 120 kilolux. The cars are powered by a 600 kW Messring drive system, which can accelerate two vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tonnes towards each other at 65 km/h or accelerate one vehicle to 120 km/h. In the first case, an 80-meter track is enough, in the second case, the entire track area will be used.
There are up to 20 cameras in different positions during each test (some for photographic purposes – these cameras track points on the vehicle). The lighting system only comes into full operation when the vehicle is in motion, just before the actual impact.
“Nowadays, of course, everything is controlled automatically, but when I started here, we still had conventional cameras and starting the tests as well as activating the cameras had to be coordinated manually. That was my job back then” – Rudolf Tesárek shared, the man who witnessed the tremendous advancement in crash test filming technology first as an employee and later as the coordinator of Skoda’s crash laboratory. The tests were always truly noisy. Tesárek explained: “Airbag deployments are the most piercing sound.”
Evidence of cars that have been tested
Incidentally, the damaged cars are stored and not discarded until later, when they lose relevance because the model has entered a new development phase and a new version of the prototype has been created, or after a defined period when the cars must be preserved for verification (this period is longer). Simply put, an automaker can optionally remove cars from “live” crash tests, but cars from homologation tests must be kept so that the results can be confirmed. Of course, all data collected during the tests is also stored – whether it is camera footage or information gathered from the dozens of sensors installed on the cars and crash test dummies.
The most piercing noise does not come from colliding with an obstacle but from airbag deployment. Needless to say, an advanced laboratory tests not only according to homologation requirements but also according to the much stricter conditions of other organizations, such as the various NCAP associations (Europe, China, United States…) or the North American NHTSA. Tesárek says: “We can carry out almost all demanding modern tests here.”
There is even a separate laboratory to prepare crash test dummies
Types of crash tests
Skoda conducts a number of crash tests in its crash laboratory, most of which serve vehicle development to verify design functionality. However, it also performs tests for homologation purposes and to validate crash testing according to Euro NCAP parameters. Below are some examples of the tests they conduct in the laboratory.