WABCO Holdings Inc., a global technology leader and tier-one supplier to the commercial vehicle industry, announces that it has successfully concluded its 25th season of winter testing at its proving ground located inside the Arctic Circle at Rovaniemi, Finland. WABCO’s development experts and test engineers logged 1,600 person-days of testing on road surfaces with snow and ice in temperatures as extreme as -30 C (-22 F).
The range of sub-zero temperatures combined with hazardous road surfaces at this unique test track create optimal conditions to stress-proof WABCO’s latest innovations in its industry-leading commercial vehicle braking and driving control systems portfolio. WABCO’s 72-day winter trials assessed vehicles equipped with prototype systems as engineers analyzed each system’s ability to perform reliably in harsh operating environments.
WABCO tested 27 company-owned vehicles and jointly conducted several other programs with a number of leading commercial vehicle manufacturers to evaluate safety, braking and control systems onboard their trucks and buses.
Results of this year’s tests advanced WABCO’s automated manual transmission (AMT) for several new vehicle platforms and further enhanced WABCO’s anti-lock braking system (ABS) for new applications and markets. WABCO also completed its final development phase for electronic braking system (EBS) for trailers with rollover stability support (RSS).
“Rigorous testing in extreme conditions further enables WABCO’s technology leadership and differentiates us as a leading development partner and global supplier to original equipment manufacturers that seek to satisfy the safety and efficiency needs of vehicle operators,” says Dr. Christian Wiehen, WABCO’s Chief Technology Officer. “Proprietary results of our winter testing further strengthen WABCO’s unique engineering capabilities in advanced systems integration as we continue to lead the evolution of our industry’s technological innovations.”
In addition, this year’s winter testing focused on the homologation of WABCO’s newest generation of EBS with integrated electronic stability control (ESC) systems for different types of commercial vehicles. WABCO pioneered ESC for commercial vehicles in 2001 and today its ESC systems are in use worldwide, helping to mitigate more than 500,000 critical driving situations annually. ESC improves directional stability and helps to protect against roll-over, skidding, spinning and, in tractor-trailer combinations, jack-knifing.
About WABCO’s Test Track at Rovaniemi, Finland
Since 1988, WABCO’s test track at Rovaniemi, Finland, has provided optimal conditions to advance vehicle safety systems to meet rising regulatory and customer requirements. An 800-meter (875-yard) braking track allows for vehicle trials using a wide range of braking systems on combinations of ice, snow and asphalt surfaces in diverse climatic conditions. A specially designed circular skid pad, with a radius of 280 meters (306 yards), robustly tests electronic stability control.
In addition to its facilities at Rovaniemi, the company owns world-class proving grounds in Jeversen, near Hanover, Germany; and in Chennai, India, making WABCO the only commercial vehicle supplier that operates three privately-owned test tracks.
