In an automotive vehicle, the Window Regulator is an electro-mechanical assembly that is mounted inside the door. The basic function of the Window Regulator is to raise or lower the glass when required and hold the glass in closed position or in any desired position. During Water servicing or rains, Water will typically enter inside the door through the seals and on to the Window Regulator mechanism. Hence these conditions must be physically tested in the laboratory to assess the Window Regulator’s functionality which could get affected by Water intrusion. The Water spray test conditions are based on mutual agreement between Inteva Products and the OEMs.
Water spray test involves moving the electric Window Regulator to upper stall position (Window closed) at a defined voltage and line resistance. The glass must be dwelled followed by spraying defined amount of Water which simulates the rain. The agreed number of test cycles would be around 4500 which lasts about 7 weeks. Hence, to prepare this test setup, a large area of floor space along with other testing peripherals were to be procured and this would involve good amount of space, cost, Water, and time. Hence the Test Lab team developed an economical in-house test setup using available resources and equipment to reuse and recycle which will lead to significant savings.
This test setup developed to conduct Water spray test was carried out by using the available electric control box and mechanical infrastructure along with re-circulation of Water. The primary objective of this test setup was to comply with the test requirements along with Water reusage. This significantly reduced the new procurement / development cost and time since the available resources in the test lab were reused (80% of the materials were used from inventory, available in-house and from multipurpose devices and 20% were purchased).