VW: New cold and climate center

Interesting news here about VW's new cold and climate test center.

The new center, which cost about 30 million euros, is designed for comprehensive testing under a wide variety of climatic conditions at temperatures ranging from -40 to +150 degrees Celsius. Even direct solar radiation, humidities up to 95 percent, elevations up to 3000 meters and wind blast can all be simulated.

All Volkswagen models face laboratory testing as one of the key components of technical development. The seven test chambers with highly advanced roller and test rig systems as well as an additional engine test bed are all available for laboratory testing.

Vehicles will no longer be heated or cooled to the test temperatures required in the test chambers themselves, as was previously the case, but in upstream conditioning boxes.

The center features 13 cold and climate test cabinets for component testing. These cabinets, with volumes ranging from 0.5 to 24 cubic meters, are used for testing parts such as injectors, windscreen wipers and doors under extreme climatic conditions.

The cold and climate test center will allow Volkswagen to expedite the product creation process, with considerable cost and time savings. To date, changes in the design and development phase have been very costly and time-consuming. In future, it will be possible to include initial experience with prototypes in the development process at an earlier stage.

Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, VW

Source: Technology News Daily

VW: New cold and climate center

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