The three lane elevation
Diamler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a fully owned subsidary of Daimler AG, world’s largest truck manufacturer have today unveiled the company owned state-of-the-art test track at their upcoming facility in Oragadam, near Chennai.
A view of the test track
This is company’s most important step towards their strategy to develop, manufacture and launch trucks for the Indian volume market beginning mid 2010. The construction of the test track began in in April 2009 and testing has already commenced. The company has planned an investment of Rs. 4400 crores over a period of next 5 years and will manufacture light, medium and heavy duty trucks at its 400 acre facility in Oragadam near Chennai.
Mr. Marc Llistosella, CEO of DICV, said, “The Indian truck industry has been steadily progressing towards modern generation products in line with the requirements of the market. Keeping in mind the Indian customer’s need for high quality and reliable Trucks, we are confident that we will meet their expectations with our Best-in-Class products, offering low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), high quality and superior value for money. Our new testing facility, a one-of-its-kind in South Asia is an important step towards ensuring this commitment”.
Mr. Aydogan Cakmaz, VP, Product Engineering, DICV, added, “This state-of the-art Test Track is a result of Indian engineering and German DNA. The construction of the Test Track with its various testing facilities is the result of extensive customer correlation studies and measurements, to simulate the reality of the Indian terrain. Our trucks will have to undergo a variety of tests to ensure high standards of overall product performance and delivery”.
This state-of-the-art Test Track spread across 47 acres (approximately) is the latest for Daimler Trucks. The other major Tracks are located are at Woerth, Germany and Kitsuregawa, Japan.
The 3-lane Test Track runs 1.55 kilometers on the outer track, equipped with a noise pad and a jump section. The inner track runs 1.16 kilometers and includes a bump track, pothole testing and articulation sections. Other facilities include a water trough, an inspection ramp and a control tower. Tests facilities such as grade-ability and steering are being planned for subsequent implementation.
Currently DICV has a base of 400 employees, of both Indian and German talent. Production at the plant will be defined in a two-phase concept, to produce a maximum capacity of 70,000 units.
Jump over for the detailed fact sheet of the test track.
Fact Sheet: DICV Test Track Chennai
Overall track length: 5.93 km
Outer track length (High speed track): 1.55 km
Inner track length (Rough Road): 1.16 km
Outer Track: 1.55 km
Three lane Track, each 4.5 m wide, with super elevated curves
o Driveline durability testing under loaded conditions with Tow-Dynamometers
o Accelerated up and down hill simulation based on customer correlated load cycles
o Max. vehicle speed of 90 kmph even up to 49 t Tractor Trailer combinations
o Hands free driving up to 60 kmph speed
o Initial run of production vehicles
Noise track
o Pass by noise test
Jump section
o Driving stability test
o Steering check for jump impacts
Inner Track: 1.16 km
Rough Road track(Cobble stone)
o Rough Road Track with 40,832 cobble stones, each positioned to precision
o Surface designed with entire vehicle Multi-Body-Simulation based on customer correlated load input to ensure equally distributed load collectives to vehicle aggregates
o Lighter bump track for brake maneuver testing
Pothole track
o Test of severe load input to axle and suspension
o Pothole Track with 3 different pothole sizes
Articulation track
o Frame and suspension test
o 3 different heights of articulations
Other Facilities:
Water trough
o Water Wading tests
o Up to 1.2 m water depth
o Cooling of Tires during rough road tests
Inspection ramp
o For periodic inspection of vehicles
Elevated Control Tower
o Overall Test supervision and control
High mast lamps
o Provides for 24 x 7 testing
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