Visteon Dyno provides portable NVH analysis
Dan Romanchik, Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 8/1/2003
At this year's Noise and Vibration Conference (May 6–8, 2003; Traverse City, MI), one of the most impressive vendor displays was Visteon's Portable NVH Dynamometer. In a semi trailer that they can haul to Visteon sites and customer sites, Visteon has installed a dyno and all the instrumentation needed to perform NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) analyses. I asked Gary Kopp, senior NVH development specialist, how Visteon built the dyno and how it's helping the company's customers.
What prompted Visteon to build the Portable NVH Dyno?We built the Portable Dynamometer to help customers evaluate NVH characteristics at a vehicle level in their vehicle development process. Unlike most NVH chassis dynamometers, which are stationary facilities, the Visteon NVH dynos are portable and allow us to bring the necessary analysis tools to the customers.
When was the dyno commissioned?We have two NVH dynamometers. The first began operating in May 1999. We unveiled the second unit, a fully enclosed unit using laser technology, in May 2001, and it went into customer service a month later.
What are its most important features?
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Gary Kopp, senior NVH development specialist, helps set up a test on Visteon's portable NVH dyno. |
Typically the crew is three people—the truck driver/mechanic, NVH technician, and NVH development engineer.
Who are your customers? What tests do you typically run for them?We have done work for North American automakers and Tier I and Tier II suppliers, as well as for Visteon new product development.
Tests are based on specific customer requirements. The tests we can run include:
- road acquisition—20 to 90 mph drive up and coast down;
- sound data acquisition and analysis;
- vibration acquisition and analysis;
- rotating component balance and correction at the vehicle level;
- performance evaluations, such as horsepower and fuel consumption; and
- root cause evaluation and verification.
We had a customer launching a vehicle for export and they noticed a vibration issue that didn't meet expectations. Visteon's dyno team worked closely with the customer to define the root cause and recommended a short-term corrective action while they initiated the engineering change that would provide a long-term assembly change. The identification of the root cause and short-term corrective recommendation allowed the customer to continue production, implementing a short-term on-line solution, while at the same time a design change was planned and implemented.
What's next?Expanded test capabilities, including real-time torsional data acquisition and a new portable dynamometer for Europe.
