In recent years, everyone has become more and more concerned about vehicle safety performance, so many vehicle-related safety associations have been born to determine whether the vehicle is safe by conducting crash tests. The IIHS and E-NCAP we are familiar with were both established in the 1990s, while the "five-star wholesale department" C-NCAP we are familiar with in China was established in 2006, and the China Insurance Research Institute, which has become popular in recent years, was also established in 2016 . Therefore, most people mistakenly believe that crash testing only appeared in the past 20 or 30 years, but in fact, the history of crash testing actually has a history of more than 80 years.
As early as 1938, engineers from Audi's predecessor "Auto Union" brand pushed the DKW? F7 down a hillside to test the vehicle's impact resistance. After many rollovers, the DKW?F7 still maintained a relatively intact body, and the engine was still running normally. It was this unprecedented crash test that made DKW?F7 famous. Compared with today's tests, this crash test in 1398 was relatively simple, but it was this simple test that started A long history of crash testing.
In 1959, Mercedes-Benz launched the luxury sedans 220, 220S and 220SE with the chassis code W111. In this car series, Mercedes-Benz engineer Bella Barnyi used his own safety body structure for the first time. Design: By designing buffer zones at the front and rear parts of the vehicle, the energy of the collision can be absorbed in a collision and the passenger compartment can be preserved to the greatest extent possible. As for this safe body structure technology, Mercedes-Benz submitted patent documents as early as 1951 and registered the patent in 1952, which shows Mercedes-Benz's advanced car-making concepts at that time.
In the same year, the first real vehicle crash test in history was conducted on this W111. In October 1959, Mercedes-Benz held the first vehicle fixed obstacle collision test at the Sindelfingen plant in Germany. A W111 loaded with a dummy was crashed into a 17-ton fixed obstacle at high speed, and the vehicle was also tested. Rollover, side impact and rear-end collision tests and other tests. The vehicle traction system in the crash test at that time was not reliable, so Fiala, a Mercedes-Benz engineer at the time, invented a steam propulsion device. A high-pressure steam tank filled with 260°C was installed on the track, and the vehicle was pushed on the track by opening the valve.
Dummies in vehicle crash tests actually existed as early as 1949 and were used in military tests at that time. Later, automobile manufacturers also noticed the importance of dummies, so in 1968, General Motors developed the first-generation Hybrid I dummy, and then developed the second-generation product. In 1972, the Hybrid II dummy was adopted as the U.S. A standard dummy used by watchdog agencies for crash tests.
It can be found that in real life vehicle collisions are rarely 100% frontal collisions, and most vehicle collisions are offset collisions. In 1975, Mercedes-Benz began to study offset collision. In 1993, Mercedes-Benz adopted the 50% offset crash test at a speed of 60km/h as a new car development standard, and E-NCAP subsequently adopted Mercedes-Benz's crash test method. The 25% offset collision that we are familiar with was implemented in 2012, catching many models off guard.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.