Propulsion Systems Testing
Highly skilled engineers generating consistently accurate test and development data to maximise value to customers.
Typical Tasks
- Battery testing and characterisation
- eDrive system testing
- Traction motor testing and development
- Complex engine development work
- Advanced development of new products
- Complete product development up to series production
- On-line piston temperature measurements
- Investigation of friction power losses on a specialized friction test bed
- Turbocharger testing
- NVH investigations
- Combustion failure detection, e.g. engine knock
- Fast oil consumption measurement (cylinder selective, transient)
- Development of special measurement procedures
- Trouble shooting of in-service problems

Our Tools, Facilities and Services in Northampton, UK
- Climatic and ambient transient test cells, capable of -40 to +50 °C
- 10 steady-state test cells
- 2 transient test cells
- Transient dynamometers rated to 250 kW, 530 Nm
- 15 absorbing dynamometers up to 700 kW
- Motoring dynamometers up to 400 kW
- Horiba 7000 emissions analyzers (gasoline)
- Cambustion NDIR500 fast analyzers for CO and CO2
- Cambustion DMS500 fast analyzers for particulate size, mass and number
- Battery simulator for hybrid system development
- Wide range of alternative fuels including CNG, LPG and biofuel blends
- Analysis, specialized measurement, emissions equipment and fully automated control
Rapid changeover engine test cell
Palletized engine modules
- On pallet heat exchangers for pre check in hot test
- Fluid heating for rapid engine warm-up
- On pallet transducers with signal conditioning
- 64 temperature channels, 32 pressure channels, 16 current / voltage channels
- CAN communication protocols
- AVL Indiset combustion measurement with continuous monitoring
- Fully automated testing and EMS optimisation
Combustion air conditioning
- Combined temperature / humidity control
- Barometric compensation unit
- Intake air delivery at up to 2,500 m3 / hour
- Boost temperature control system
Chilled coolant system for continuous cold start test cycles
- 500 kW external refrigeration unit
- Continuous 5 °C fluid supply
- Configurable HD camera system for monitoring and event investigation
- AVL PUMA test automation system

Our Tools, Facilities and Services in Plymouth, Michigan, USA
CARB AccreditedTest Facility (40 CFR Parts 86 & 1065) with 7 Engine Test Cells Capable up to 500 kW
Wide range of alternative fuels including CNG, LPG and biofuel blends
AVL test cell automation & control suites
- Integrated with state of the art products:
- AVL i60 dual stream emissions benches
- AVL 478 Particulate Sampler
- AVL 483 MicroSoot
- AVL Indicom Combustion Analysis
- AVL i60 FTIR
- APC Particle Counter
- FlowSonix airflow meters
- Fully automated & programmable test cell routines to enable fast, accurate & repeatable measurements suited for engine mapping, Design of Experiment based testing with high testing efficiencies and low downtime
- Automated data collection & reporting using AVL iGEM engine software package
HD Performance and Emissions and OBD Engineering Support
- Hardware Development
- OBD Calibration
- IUVP
- Emissions Certification
- Competitive Benchmarking

Our Tools, Facilities and Services in Shanghai, China
- Medium / heavy duty testing:
- High accuracy AC dynamometer 600 kW, 4400 Nm:
- Blow-by and oil consumption instrumentation
- Durability testing
- Light duty testing
- High sped eddy current dynamometer 330 kW, 600Nm
- Blow-by and oil consumption instrumentation
- Engine component and system test
- Component / material testing
- SPECTROLAB metallurgical analyzer
- Scanning electron microscope
- Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscope
- Variable air flow test rigs
- Leakage test rigs
- Pulsation tester
- Climate chamber test
- Salt spray chamber
- 3D scanning meter

Our Tools, Facilities and Services in Stuttgart, Germany
- New eAxle test facility
- Dynamic tracking tests with vehicle simulation
- Torque vectoring with wheel slip simulation
- Performance mapping
- eDrive characterization
- Thermal testing (-30 to +130 deg C)
- Efficiency studies
- Peak power 840 kW (420kw x2)
- Peak torque 8,400 Nm (4,200 Nm x2)
- 32 engine test beds:
- 14 test rigs for passenger car engines
- 11 for diesel truck engines
- 3 for small two-stroke engines
- Friction measurement test bed
- Cold test chamber
- Anechoic chamber
- Eddy current brakes (160 - 250 kW)
- AC dynos (200 - 800 kW)
- Water whirl brakes (400 - 1200 kW)
- AVL PUMA OPEN automation systems


Our Value Add
- Extensive rig test facilities including multi-axis tilt rig, cylinder head airflow rig, valvetrain dynamics rig and various coolant, oil and fuel system test rigs
Our Tools, Facilities and Services
- Four dedicated rig test rooms
- Motored friction tear-down test cell (100 kW motoring)
- Controllable fuel, oil and coolant parameters
- Twin bay engine hot test cell
- Engines run under light or zero load
- Tilt rig (up to 45˚ inclination) for oil & breather system development
- Hydrogen supply up to 200 bar for component testing
- Valve train dynamics / valve rotation rig
- Cylinder head airflow rig
- Engine coolant visualization rig
- Crankshaft thrust loading rig
- Fuel injector flow rig

Our Value Add
Wide range of in-house support functions including instrumentation, metrology, oil analysis, fabrication, facility support and logistics
Our Tools, Facilities and Services
- In-cylinder pressure measurement
- Pressure, flow and temperature measurement
- Blow-by, smoke and fuel flow measurement
- Flame lonization Detector (Fast FID)
- Oil aeration measurement
- Oil analysis laboratory
- Surface roughness and hardness testing
- Form and contour measurement
- High speed video filming
- Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) measurement and assessment
- Metrology equipment
- Coordinate measurement machine (CMM) with 1600x800x900mm measurement volume
- Hardness testing of ferrous and non-ferrous materials
- Surface roughness and contour measurement
- Profile and surface measurement
- Air gauging
- Height measurement