Door Testing Applications

Closure concerns can severely impact vehicle things gone wrong (TGW) and warranty. To prevent this, assembly plants use plant quality indicators to identify and correct concerns before they reach the customer. Effective closure indicators must completely characterize the system as the customer experiences it. Once a concern is found, pertinent data must be available to identify the root cause. Ideally, a device that requires very little training and took a minimum of time and effort to acquire the data to allow routine use with little training.

EZ Slam is an ideal tool to acquire closure indicators. Because EZ Slam measures all dynamic and static closure metrics, closure concerns can be identified and contained within the plant. The variety of data and analysis capabilities allow root cause identification to promptly correct the concern. Multiple measurement systems are eliminated as EZ Slam measures all closure metrics with one device; this reduces time and cost. EZ Slam’s four button user interface makes the system easy to use and time efficient. This facilitates plant use on a regular basis with little training.

Below are several typical closure concerns along with the EZ Slam metric that indicates the concern:

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Benchmarking is done early in the product development cycle to help set engineering targets. In a typical benchmarking study, several competitive vehicles are obtained and various measurements are done to gage the performance. From the benchmarking data the appropriate levels for targets can be determined. Closure measurement systems used in benchmarking must quickly provide comprehensive data with no teardown of the vehicle.

EZ Slam is well suited for benchmarking. In a few simple operations most engineering metrics of the closure can be measured with one single system. No teardown of the vehicle is required. The data is comprehensive enough to provide insight into the performance of competitive vehicles and guide target setting.

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Automotive manufacturers and their suppliers strive to achieve a consistent look, feel, and sound in closures across all vehicles in a brand. To reach this goal closure measurements are required in several phases of the product development process.

Tests are performed on prototypes according to the Design Verification Plan to ensure that the performance of various systems meets the engineering targets. Since prototypes are expensive and limited in number, the testing time must be minimized. The data however must be comprehensive enough to thoroughly measure the performance; this is particularly true in closure systems which have several metrics which must be balanced.

In design verification of closure systems EZ Slam can help reduce testing while providing comprehensive data. In one measurement many closure metrics can be quickly obtained. Because of this, the number of measurement systems and tests required can be reduced, saving prototype time.

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Durability Testing

Durability tests are performed to determine the performance of a system within an extended time period under a variety of environmental conditions. The system is subject to repeated applications of a load and the performance is measured over time. In closure durability tests, measurements are required for two phases of the test setup: First, to determine the load the closure experiences in typical use and second, to set the load in the test rig.

Because EZ Slam measures the trajectory of the door, it can provide more detailed closure load data than other measurement systems. This can be used to more accurately characterize the load required for the durability test. In the durability test rig, the trajectory can be measured to make sure the loading is correct.

In durability tests not all closure metrics are required and the measurement system is often contained in the test rig. EZ Slam can be configured to provide only the tests required and integrated into the durability test system.

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