The Freightliner Group has announced new capabilities at its Test Engineering operation in the South Bend, Ind., area. The proving grounds now include a new, 24,600-square-foot building with state-of-the-art equipment for servicing test vehicles and offices for Freightliner engineering staff.

The new structure and other vehicle testing facilities will constitute an important resource for the
company's current and future vehicle proving activities. The Freightliner Group Test Engineering staff began operations in the new building in June.
The Freightliner Group uses the 675-acre South Bend-area facility to test all of the vehicles manufactured by the company's brands. These include heavy- and medium-duty trucks, RV and bus chassis, school buses and cabs and chassis for fire & emergency apparatus. Vehicle testing activities conducted here include accelerated structural durability evaluations, brake system development and certification, stability testing, interior/exterior noise testing, power train endurance, cold weather performance and fuel economy.
"This is the place where we push the company's vehicles to their limits," said Ramin Younessi, chief test engineer for The Freightliner Group.
Younessi said accelerated durability testing is the principal activity conducted by Freightliner Test Engineering at the proving grounds. This activity evaluates the structural integrity and reliability of every component on the test vehicle - from cabs to chassis to frame rails to major components like engines and transmissions. The test course used produces up to 83:1 acceleration ratio: every mile driven on the test course is equivalent to approximately 83 miles in real world operation. Over the course of a year, vehicles at the proving grounds accumulate the equivalent of millions of miles of operation.
The durability course on the property includes such features as chatter bumps, inverted chatter bumps, impact bumps, staggered bumps, cobblestones, chuck holes, an undulating road and a resonance road.
"Imagine the worst road you have ever driven on," Younessi said. "That's what we run our test vehicles on every day, seven days per week. "It takes some very special test drivers to be able to meet the rigors of our operation, and some very special test engineers to be able to inspect and determine the structural integrity of the components."
After vehicles complete their specified test runs, they are evaluated by engineers for the nature of wear and tear. According to Al Pearson, Freightliner's director of the vehicle test group, that's where the new building and its state-of-the-art equipment will highly useful.
The new test facility includes eight drive-through bays for inspecting vehicles and their trailers, plus a 45-foot drive-over pit for servicing trucks and buses. Three overhead cranes will cover the length of the building. Also housed in the structure will be the latest computer hardware and software tools for diagnosing and recalibrating vehicles.
Pearson added that The Freightliner Group also tests some of the latest innovations in truck safety technology at the South Bend-area providing grounds. Systems evaluated here include Roll Advisor & Control – designed to alleviate truck rollover -- and Electronic Stability Control (ESC), designed to increase overall vehicle stability.
The South Bend-area proving grounds used by The Freightliner Group are owned by Robert Bosch Corporation.
For more information on Freightliner, go to www.freightliner.com.