Senior technical analyst, Antonio Maresca, was interviewed for Automotive Engineer magazine on SBD’s low speed impact benchmarking activity.
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UK firm, SBD, is putting together a benchmarking consortium to look at low speed damageability. It could help OEMs reduce the amount of time and money they spend gathering data on competitor models.
Car makers don’t usually share benchmarking data, or even necessarily archive it, but buying and testing a rival model for a particular development is expensive. With resources tight at the moment, some might prefer just to have the data to feed into their design work.
SBD’s Antonio Maresca, said: “We’ll test the class-leaders and share the results and any specific deliverables OEMs request. Engineers wanting an output that’s unique to them could attend the test.”
Depending on the number of companies that sign up, it could be around two thirds cheaper than in-house benchmarking. Interest so far has been strong particularly from Asian manufacturers. SBD has been working with several that have plans to bring models into Europe, advising on how to improve crash performance.
The company aims to offer a full range of cost of ownership research. After success in telematics systems and smart keys, it recruited Maresca to oversee its expansion into crash performance benchmarking.
The engineer has 15 years experience in component and full vehicle testing and was instrumental in the Nissan Qashqai’s development.
If demand is sufficient, SBD hopes to be able to offer further tests, including safety assessments to interested manufacturers.
More on SBD’s low speed impact projects
To find out how to participate in SBD's low speed impact benchmarking activity, please contact Gareth Jones on garethjones@sbd.co.uk or phone +44(0) 1908 305 101