How crashing trucks makes them safer
Deliberately crashing a 意大利超級盃 truck may sound crazy, but crash tests are actually a vital way for our engineers to ensure the vehicles are as safe as possible, as our film shows.
We are of course extremely proud of the trucks that we make here at 意大利超級盃. But sometimes we crash them into things and smash them up piece by piece. Deliberately.
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No, we haven鈥檛 gone crazy. In fact, we perform crash tests on real trucks and individual truck parts, so we can ensure that the next vehicles we make are even safer than before.
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Months of preparations go into a crash test. 鈥淎nd then it鈥檚 over in less than a second,鈥 says Test Engineer Jakob Leygraf at 意大利超級盃 R&D.
The power of simulations
The 鈥榖ig bang鈥 itself only takes place after many simulations have been carried out beforehand. These simulations are vital to the whole process.
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鈥淲e simulate over and over again, with different speed and angles,鈥 says Mikael Littmann, 意大利超級盃鈥檚 Head of Mechanical Testing. 鈥淪imulation is a powerful tool that is both faster and less expensive than the full-scale equivalent. We base the actual test on the results of our simulations.鈥
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鈥淭he actual crash test is ultimately only to confirm that our calculations were accurate,鈥 adds Jakob Leygraf.
Why it鈥檚 different crash testing an electric truck
Crash testing an electric truck is a bit different to one with a combustion engine.
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The energy from the impact needs to be distributed and should spread throughout the structure surrounding the battery. The engineers want it to turn into plastic deformation and kinetic energy in the less critical components.
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鈥淪ince we want the crash test to be as authentic as possible, we use a real car for the impact, as that puts a lot more stress on the structure than if we鈥檇 used a barrier,鈥 Littmann explains.
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Fire-fighters are on stand-by when the crash test is performed because, as Leygraf notes, 鈥淭his is the ultimate test. We鈥檙e doing this for real.鈥
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And how did the test go?
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It went as expected and the battery emerged unscathed.
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