Vehicle NVH testing in operational conditions: Shift into higher gear
Do you, as an NVH test engineer, regularly face the situations when you need to redo some measurements? For example, due to erroneous instrumentation that was not identified during testing? Or do you notice a large overlap between different test setups used within your company, so some tests are repeated twice? Do you spend a lot of time cleaning up and processing data? These are just a few examples of very common process inefficiencies within the vehicle development cycle.
The efficiency of the nvh testing equipment, software and procedures is a big topic for the testing departments in automotive industry. Especially these days, when car produces bring a wide range of model variants to the market speedily. Their goal is to satisfy customers seeking for personalized vehicles. The increased number of product variants means that the NVH testing teams must pursue more tests on less prototypes and sharper deadlines. So, how do you do that?
Automotive NHV Operational testing: Proving ground
Three ideas how to improve your NVH testing methods
Bart Verrecas, a Business developer at Siemens Simcenter, shares his experience and inspirational ideas on how to increase the efficiency of NVH testing. Being 14 years in the automotive NVH testing business, Bart Verrecas has had the opportunity to visit and work with many different NVH testing departments around the globe. “To keep up with the with the continuous competitive push to develop cars faster, you need to open doors to innovation on all levels and departments. Sometimes, you need to take a step back from what you do today. Reinvent the current vehicle noise and vibration tests and the related procedures,” says Bart Verrecas.
His extensive experience in the field helped him to express his advice in three keywords: Flexibility – Confidence – Efficiency.
NVH testing equipment
Firstly, to accelerate the vehicle NVH testing procedures you should create a flexible working environment. Use NVH testing equipment that can easily adapt to your current need. Some of the changes could be pragmatic: offer an option to acquire data when needed. A personal hardware device for fast troubleshooting, whenever required, is one example. Or use a data acquisition system that is scaleable. It will allow you to collect data from small to high number of signals and wide range of sensors.
Secondly, you need to focus on the quality of the collected data. The data validation needs to happen as quickly as possible. The worst thing to happen is when you need to reacquire data because of late identification of the problem.
And finally, innovation in the NVH testing also means unification and automation. “We’re not far away from times, when some tests can be fully automated. Vice versa, some of our clients are already able to automate some tests.” This approach will help you to get rid of inefficiencies and similar redundant instrumentation multiple times. “Aim to combine different tasks and strive for intelligent test execution.”
Vehicle NVH testing lab
Learn more and put these ideas into your practice
Now, how to bring these ideas into your practice? Join us for the webinar: “Latest innovations in vehicle NVH operational testing.” During this webinar, Bart Verecas will walk you through these tactics and provide you with more detailed information and insights.
Learn, how you can speed up the nvh operational testing in your department.
