Milford's New Roll

In an effort to better understand and ultimately prevent the most lethal type of vehicle crash, General Motors Corp. brings its rollover crash testing activities in-house, becoming the first North American auto maker to do so.

Located next to GM's conventional barrier-crash test facilities at its 4,000-acre (1,619-ha) proving grounds in Milford, MI, the new 38,500-sq.-ft. (3,577-sq.-m) rollover test site is aimed at helping the auto maker develop more advanced airbag sensors to protect occupants and prevent passenger ejections during vehicle rollovers.

Rollovers account for just 2% of the crashes on U.S. roadways each year but claim about 40% of the fatalities, the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. says.

In addition to the new rollover center, GM plans to combat this problem with a commitment to use rollover-enabled side curtain airbags in all of its light-duty retail vehicles by 2012, up from the current 43%.

Rollover-enabled airbags stay inflated after a crash for up to five seconds vs. the 300 milliseconds for conventional head curtain units, GM Vice President-Energy and Environment Beth Lowery says.

Prior to the opening of the new facility, GM used safety systems supplier Autoliv Inc.'s Auburn Hills, MI, testing facility to do rollover evaluations. With the new facility integrated into the rest of GM's crash evaluation operations, testing costs will be reduced and efficiencies will be improved, the auto maker says.

The new facility represents a $10.2 million investment and comes on the heels of more than $30 million that GM has poured into various crash test operations at Milford over the last two years, says Albert Ware, director-Vehicle Safety and Crashworthiness Laboratories.

When testing begins next year, GM's new site will be capable of performing 150-200 rollover simulations annually, with four separate types of crashes:

Using a 900-hp electric motor connected to a series of winches and pulleys, the new site can accelerate test vehicles up to 47 mph (75 km/h) down the 338-ft. (103-m) acceleration tunnel, the auto maker says.

Other features of the new, climate-controlled facility include a 2-story control and observation structure, a high-speed video recording system capable of filming at 1,000 frames per second, and two 120-ft. (37-m) articulating banks of incandescent lights over the crash area.

In total, the facility uses 1,872 1,000-watt bulbs to illuminate the test area.

Along with providing a significant resource for GM's vehicle development operations in North America, the new rollover center also has substantial global implications, Lowery says, adding the facility will test vehicles for various GM operations around the world and collaborate on evaluations with units such as the GM Technical Center in Warren, MI.