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UK FIRST AS UNWIN SAFETY SYSTEMS OPENS DYNAMIC TEST LABORATORY

Norman Unwin and Peter Roy open Unwin Test House

UNWIN Safety Systems has become the first UK manufacturer of wheelchair safety systems to open its own dynamic laboratory for crash tests.

The new facility gives Unwin unique strengths in developing products for customers worldwide.

Andrew Creese, Unwin’s chief executive, said: ‘We’ve led the way for more than 50 years in safety, reliability and responsiveness to what people want.

‘Investing in our own laboratory means we can carry out more tests on products, more quickly and more intensively.

‘We can make our products even more robust, and give people the full benefits of our research. It’s an outstanding achievement by our staff. I’m very excited by it.’

The test house is a new building next to Unwin’s factory in Somerset. It includes a test bed and sled, a control room and a plant room, all designed by Unwin engineers Rob Butcher and Mike Booth, who have many years previous experience working in testing facilities in Britain and overseas. 

Thousands of hours of work has gone into creating the Unwin Dynamic Laboratory.

‘It’s a brilliant facility to have. The fact that we as a team have brought it to fruition is enormously rewarding.’ said Mr Butcher.

Official opening and plans for the future

The Unwin Dynamic Laboratory was officially opened on Friday, May 27 by Peter Roy, a former principal lecturer in Mechanical Engineering who ran the Middlesex University Road Safety Engineering Laboratory (MURSEL) between 1979 and 1997.

MURSEL conducted 52 tests for Unwin and the company supplied equipment that was used to help develop the international safety standards ISO 10542 and ISO 7176/19.

Mr Roy and Unwin’s founder Norman Unwin became good friends. The two men often spoke about Unwin setting up its own test house.

Mr Roy said: ‘I am very pleased that this has finally been achieved. I think the company will benefit a great deal in the development of new products as it is inevitable that in the future, safety standards will become increasingly complex and demanding.’

Mr Unwin said: ‘I have long felt that it’s an essential facility for us to have and I am very proud of the company for having the foresight to go ahead with it.’    

The test house has been designed primarily for Unwin’s own use but some collaboration with other manufacturers is expected in future, particularly in relation to the WAV market and the Recast Framework Directive 2007/46/EC for European Type Test approvals.

Rob Butcher, Unwin’s Director of Engineering, said: ‘We’re able to take a vehicle body shell, up to the size of something like a large MPV-type vehicle.’

He added: ‘Changes in legislation mean that we’ve got more customers and potential customers out there who need to do more sled testing, so if people are using our products then of course we’d like to talk about working together.’
Unwin Dynamic Laboratory: How it works 

The laboratory’s main purpose is to test Unwin products against the requirements of international standard ISO 10542. In practice, a crash test dummy costing approximately £20,000 and a wheelchair are secured to a one-tonne sled using Unwin products. The sled is set running at a steady 30mph, then crashed into a block of concrete and steel bars, so it goes from 30 to zero in 0.1 of a second. When this happens everything on the sled instantly becomes 20 times heavier.

It’s impossible for the naked eye to take in the detail of what happens in a momentary 20G crash like this (0.1 of a second is the time it takes to lower your eyelids when you blink.) So, the rig is fitted with instruments that feed numerous channels of data off the sled, and the laboratory is also equipped with a camera that normally films at 1000 frames a second, but can capture images at 36,000 frames a second.

Powerful lights ensure clarity of vision during the vital split-second of impact.

Data gathered is downloaded to the control room for interpretation and analysis. Steel bars bent into extraordinary curved shapes are replaced.

A wheelchair specially developed for repeated use in crash-tests is generally used, but tests to ISO 7176/19 can be done with real wheelchairs.

External verification of results is carried out by Vehicle Certification Authority (VCA) staff who witness tests and do a facility check before writing up reports.

See the video of the opening, click on: http://bit.ly/jUOzco