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New VW Safety Center Features Tri-Axis Crash Sled
Volkswagen AG’s namesake unit has opened a new safety center at its headquarters campus in Wolfsburg, Germany.
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Volkswagen AG’s namesake unit has opened a new safety center at its headquarters campus in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The three-story building has 86,100 sq ft of floor space that brings together various testing equipment under one roof. This includes a newly developed crash sled system that VW says can better simulate accidents and the effects of advanced safety technologies.
The sled’s precisely controllable hydraulic system can simulate a vehicle’s forward pitching and lateral yaw movements immediately prior to impact. This allows engineers to simulate emergency braking maneuvers and other pre-crash safety systems, VW says.
Vehicles weighing as much as three tons can be tested on the sleds at speeds as high as 100 km/h (62 mph). The underfloor cable-rail system allows for travel of about 460 ft.
VW says its development group conducts some 800 sled tests per year. The carmaker also has a separate crash test facility on the Wolfsburg campus.
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