Autoliv’s Sound and Vibration Laboratory for Automotive Safety Component Development

The new sound and vibration laboratory at Autoliv’s Ogden Technical Center (OTC) was purpose-built with a focus on automotive safety restraint product development (air bags, seat belts, steering wheels, etc.). The laboratory requirements stem from the continued industry trend of quieter vehicles which drives the need for components with extremely low levels of rattle noise. The laboratory at OTC complements similar Autoliv testing facilities around the world. Test articles range from several cubic inches up to approximately one cubic foot and contain varying degrees of moving elements. With the new laboratory at OTC, Autoliv can test new product designs earlier in the development process and obtain test results and feedback faster. The function of the OTC test lab is vibration-induced rattle noise; shake components with a known input and measure the resulting noise. To provide an acceptable signal to noise ratio, the new laboratory was designed to have a 25 dBA re 20 μPa noise floor, reasonable Transmission Loss though the various partitions, modest internal reverberation control, and an ultra-quiet electrodynamic shaker. Achieving these goals required a site acoustic and vibration survey during the project planning phase, the results of which were compared to the performance criteria to drive the various architectural decisions. The resulting facility is capable of generating, recording, and analyzing the target sounds without concern for noise contamination. With this high quality vibro-acoustic information, design decisions can be made early in the product design cycle.