A New Laboratory Device for Passenger Car Safety Studies

The Proving Ground Section of General Motors Corp. has installed, and is using, a new fullscale impact machine for simulating vehicle crash conditions. The device is unique in the automotive industry having been provided with the capacity for the indoor testing of complete vehicle structures to an acceleration of 40 g. Vehicle components can be subjected to even higher accelerations.

The machine is also unique in that the test vehicle or component is subjected to an acceleration pulse rather than the equivalent deceleration shock.

The installation has been equipped with modern instrumentation for precise recording of test conditions. This includes high level illumination for the high speed photographic coverage.