S-E-A (Scientific Expert Analysis) will expand its test capabilities and provide improved confidentiality for customers at a new campus, which will include an outdoor test facility
In order to accommodate current and future growth, S-E-A is constructing a new research campus consisting of four buildings covering nearly 110,000ft². The site is located approximately half a mile from S-E-A’s existing facility in Columbus, Ohio and is scheduled to open in mid-2016. As part of the plans, S-E-A has already employed 15 additional experts and plans to hire a further 15.
Central to the facility will be an outdoor asphalt vehicle test pad, an off-road vehicle course, an earthen hill with various grades, and rollover test pits. These outdoor test facilities will be used to test a broad spectrum of vehicles and equipment. On-road vehicles, ATVs, ROVs, golf carts, and other off-highway vehicles will be able to be tested in a variety of situations. Using the outdoor facilities, rollover, crash analysis, crash avoidance, safety/occupant protection evaluations and automated steering tests can be conducted.
Additionally, the facility will house a new sled test facility that will be considerably longer (at least 50%) than the existing one, enabling higher speed testing and better control of the sled motion.
“Our new campus and improved facilities will allow us to conduct testing that we can’t currently do,” Jason Baker, S-E-A CEO says. “The present sled testing platform is unidirectional; a vehicle is placed at the start of the rail and is accelerated toward the impact barrier. In the new facility, the sled track is longer, one end is by an overhead door and we will be able to run toward the barrier and conversely toward the overhead door. A vehicle can be accelerated from the start to the barrier, from the barrier out through the overhead door, and we can set up a barrier or another vehicle that we can accelerate into.”
As a whole, S-E-A will also have more space to develop key products such as its inertial measurement equipment, Automated Test Driver and its tilt tables.
Client confidentiality will be improved, too: “Currently, we outsource the test pad and off-road testing needs, but the new facility will enable an increased level of confidentiality because it’s on private property. We will also be able to offload vehicles inside the facility, which we can’t do at the moment,” notes Baker.
July 1, 2015
