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Tested mobility? Up and running! –
with testing and engineering services
by the IMA Dresden

Embedded in an international development network of innovators and trendsetters, the IMA Dresden
helps designers, developers and engineers at manufacturers and suppliers within the automobile industry.

At IMA Dresden, HP meets kilonewtons, and engines, bodies, frames, axles and stabilizers are put through their paces. When IMA accelerates bodies, seats and exhaust systems on the vibration table, then even Formula One race cars are left for dust. Minus temperatures, road salt, pot holes – the road is put in the lab and operating loads are simulated. In explosion-proof laboratories tanks and pipe systems are tested with every real liquid, be it AdBlue, kerosene, coolants or oils. Big fields, big harvesters, big excavators, big forces – no problem for the flexible testing labs and modern measurement and control engineering.

Read brochure   Electrical testing automotive

Our portfolio

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Environmental Simulation and Vibration

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Simulation and Strength Assessments

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Material Testing for Plastics and Composite Materials

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Test before you start

As a recognised and certified testing and engineering service provider, we are your reliable development partner. For testing operational stability and endurance, we offer stability, reliability and development testing, or development tests for automobile parts and components, media-bearing systems, electrical components and materials.

Complete vehicles and vehicle bodies

Design versus dimensional stability –under continuous loads and on poor routes, forces on the vehicle structures can affect the function, stability and size of the body elements or the convertible roof, for instance, even for those with a sporty driving style.

To determine the service life through experiments, we offer fatigue testing in which the loads that occur during driving are simulated is a realistic manner. Experimental verification of operational stability is carried out on complete vehicles and body components:

  • roof systems, whole vehicle structures
  • front / rear vehicle structures
  • body substructures (e.g. body strut dome)

Our engineers, measurement technicians and test mechanics offer you extensive experience in operational load simulation, where real-time signals are measured on the multi-channel test bench. Whether you want to look at cornering, poor conditions, braking torque or steering manoeuvres, in the laboratory we simulate all possible load on the vehicle structures.

 

The range of services includes the computer-aided design of specific test stand set-ups and simulation. In the design phase of the development process, we can also support you by providing measurements for determining load data and put together load configurations for experimental simulations.

For instance, our flexible test stands allow us to reproduce accelerations on a course with poor conditions and fully feed them into the structure. The frequency range that can be reproduced in the test stand is between approx. 3 and 50 Hz and covers all critical conditions.

All regular operating loads, single incidents and even instances of misuse are included in the load simulation tests.

The complex load conditions of real driving are simulated. In the process, a vehicle’s whole service life is traversed as quickly as possible, with reliable conclusions drawn about its system reliability.

Chassis and chassis components

We help suppliers in the automobile industry to ensure quality with required proof of service life. Our experimental examinations of chassis components and trials of all kinds using different modes offer you the chance to evaluate different design, technology and material options. Of course, we offer the whole service under different climatic and environmental influences.

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  • Auxiliary frame and wishbone
  • Half-axes
  • Axles, front axle, rear axle (single and multichannel)
  • Spring damper systems
  • Stabilisers
  • Brakes, brake components
  • Chassis pivot joints as per AK-LH 14

This enables the implementation of one-stage loads, block programmes and real-time signals in our test stands. The tests are carried out under the influence of matter such as salt spray or under different climate conditions.

Engines and engine components

We offer innovative test stand solutions for strength tests on engine components:

  • one- and two-channel strength testing of crankcases
  • strength testing of connecting rods, crankshafts and camshafts
  • wear testing of camshafts

Transmission components

IMA Dresden can support you as a skilled, experienced partner in the development of vehicle transmission by providing the following services

  • Development, construction and operation of customised special test stands
  • Implementation of various test scenarios: continuous operation, load cycles, determination of sound emissions, low ad high temperature test, impermeability
  • Early detection of damage through continuous monitoring by means of vibro-acoustic diagnosis

Medium-conducting systems

From fuel systems and SCR systems to brake and lubrication systems, our engineers are pleased to assist you with the planning, implementation and evaluation of your testing programmes as part of your development and approval process. We also draw upon these services to support you with product optimisation. In our efficient laboratories, fitted with modern equipment and explosion protection, we determine the behaviour of your test specimen under the real driving load, combined with temperature changes, pressure changes, volumetric flow and vibration simulation. Special media are applied according to your specifications, regardless of whether we are testing individual circuits, components, units (pressure generators, pressure consumers) or whole systems.

Examples: Tanks, fuel lines, rails, connections, valves, seals, pressure regulators, radiators, heat exchangers, evaporators, condensers, auxiliary heaters, electric heaters, independent vehicle heaters, expansion tanks, circuits, tubes, filler pipes, SCR circuits, intercoolers, charge air pipes

Testing media

  • Air: –1 to 300 bar rel.
  • fuel (Otto, diesel and alternative)
  • coolants
  • lubricants (various oils)
  • special fluids (e.g. urea/AdBlue®)

Testing methods

  • Impermeability at over- and underpressure
  • Internal high-pressure testing of fuel-carrying systems
  • Tightness test using total pressure change methods (Group D – DIN EN 13184)
  • Flow measurement
  • Pressure threshold test
  • Bursting pressure test
  • Motion simulation
  • Function testing

Test methods for tanks and tanks system tests

  • Fuel permeation for tank systems in accordance with GS 97014 (SHED test)
  • Pressure / vacuum test
  • Pressure change loading
  • Slosh testing on car tank system (starting and stopping)
  • Vibration testing
  • Tightness testing, incl. with helium
  • System ventilation

 

You can find more information on the media load testing page.

Exhaust systems

Exhaust systems and exhaust gas-carrying components are subject to complex load conditions due to their function and location within the vehicle. There are strong thermo-mechanical stresses due to the temperature of the exhaust gas. Meanwhile, these components have to withstand mechanical vibration loads arising from the motion of the vehicle and motor vibration impulses.

As part of fatigue testing, we use a hot shaker test stand for operational load simulation, whose main components are a multi-axle vibration table and a hot gas generator. Using the multi-axle vibration table, it is possible to generate controlled loads from mechanical vibrations. The hot gas generator is capable of generating variable thermo-mechanical loads for components. Combining both systems allows the overlaying of stresses through experimental simulation.

The multi-axle 6DOF MAST test stand enables the realisation of accelerations of up to 200 m/s² on test specimens with a test object mass of up to 680 kg in a frequency range from 0.5 to 100 Hz. The additional integrated hot gas generator enables the simulation of thermal loads of 50 – 850°C.

 

Electronic components

In our modern high performance test fields we offer accredited tests of electronic components.

Testing services:

  • Energization of components superimposed with climatic storage or vibration tests
  • Energization tests with n loads
  • High current tests up to 20,000 A DC (subject battery connectors, fuses …)
  • Insulation resistance
  • Detection of temperatures, currents and voltage drops and resistance measurement
  • Tests according to LV 124 and LV 214 and comparable tests

Typical products:

  • Connectors and cables
  • Power distributor and fuse carrier
  • Battery connector
  • Plug and screw fuses
  • Relays, buttons and switchgear

Read brochure

More information can be found here on the page Electrical Testing

IMA participates in the CarE-Service Project. It´s funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776851.
More information at www.careserviceproject.eu