Daimler New Daimler crash test center
01.12.2016
M ith an investment in the three-digit million range, Daimler has invested in Security technology set up for the future. The new Technology Center Vehicle Safety (TFS) in Sindelfingen is likely to be the most modern crash test center in the world. Although modern assistance systems will play a major role in crash avoidance in the future, as long as there are still numerous vehicles of different generations on the road, the topic of passive safety will continue to be of great relevance and will therefore play an important role in vehicle development='v-A_-article__inline-container'>
Daimler
The hall offers more space than a soccer field.
Up to 4 crash lanes in parallel
The new facility in Sindelfingen is well equipped for all requirements. The flexible, efficient crash track concept not only offers the option of classic crash tests, but also creates the conditions for completely new test arrangements: vehicle-vehicle collisions (Car2Car) from all angles, the evaluation of Pre-Safe, automated maneuvers with subsequent crash, crash tests by truck. A total of around 70 different crash test configurations are possible. There is also the sled test field for testing components and new methods for measuring vehicles before and after the crash.
The longest crash track over 200 m. There are a total of five crash blocks, one of which can be moved flexibly in space and another can be rotated around the vertical axis. Together with a mobile partition wall system, the system enables the simultaneous and independent operation of up to four crash lanes. Thanks to the new operating concept and the flexible system layout, around 900 crash tests can be carried out each year. There are also about1,700 sled attempts per year.
Daimler
1959 begins Mercedes-Benz with systematic crash tests, which become an important basis for safety development. Initially, cable systems and later hot water rockets are used to drive the test vehicles.
Extreme structure, extreme requirements
Technology Center Vehicle Safety (TFS) cost a three-digit million amount. The first preliminary planning began over ten years ago, construction began in autumn 2013, the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on May 12, 2015, and the first productive crash test was carried out on September 30, 2016.
One of the challenges was this that pillars were not allowed to stand in the large crash test hall and that the floor of the crash lanes should be extremely flat. The structural features also include temperature control with the help of waste heat from the neighboring climatic wind tunnels.
The dimensions and the use of materials in the construction of the TFS are impressive: the column-free roofed part of the crash hall is significantly larger at 90 meters by 90 meters than the area of a soccer field. A total of over 7,000 tons of steel were used. And the use of a total of 36,000 m³ of concrete can be illustrated with a line of concrete mixer vehicles around 40 kilometers long.
The longest runway from crash block to crash block measures more than 200 meters. For the tests to be carried out exactly, the floor must be extremely flat. In a strip of ± 4 meters around the center of the crash lane, the tolerance is ± 2 mm /m, over the entire lane length it is ± 5 mm /100 m. The floor slab rests on approx. 500 concrete pillars that extend up to 18 m into the ground. It is tempered in a similar way to underfloor heating to ensure the required temperature constancy in the hall.
