Columbus, Ohio—June 25, 2013—In an unprecedented event, S-E-A recently performed the 5,000th test on the company’s Vehicle Inertia Measurement Facility (VIMF). The test was preformed on a Wayne Taylor Racing racecar.  Located in Columbus, Ohio, the facility opened in 1994.  S-E-A engineers and technicians have tested an extraordinary assortment of vehicles for the U.S. government, worldwide automobile manufacturers and numerous professional racing teams.

The VIMF is used to measure vehicle mass, vehicle center-of-gravity (CG) location, and other important vehicle inertia properties.  Having accurate measurements of these properties is critical to agencies that govern and regulate vehicle safety, manufacturers that strive to build safe and reliable vehicles and to race teams that push vehicles to their performance limits.

S-E-A designed the original VIMF in 1993. In addition to the Ohio-based VIMF, S-E-A has manufactured and sold VIMFs to major automobile manufacturers worldwide.  Currently, five of the eight largest automobile manufacturers in the world utilize VIMFs for making their vehicle inertia measurements.

Beginning in 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began using vehicle CG height measurements of all new model vehicles sold in the U.S. as part of the metrics needed to rank vehicle rollover resistance in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) star ratings.  S-E-A made all of these measurements under NHTSA contract using the VIMF, in Ohio.

S-E-A engineers and technicians also use the VIMF to make measurements of inertia properties of vehicles other than typical automobiles, such as military vehicles, Recreational Off-highway Vehicles (ROVs), All Terrain Vehicles (ATM), agricultural equipment, racecars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and golf cars.  The Consumer Products Safety Commission (which regulates some of these types of vehicles), the U.S. Army, numerous vehicle manufacturers, universities and engineering R&D firms use the S-E-A VIMF.

“The Center of Gravity is fundamental in race car engineering, which is why we utilize
S-E-A’s Vehicle Inertia Measurement Facility.  The data gathered has increased the accuracy of our vehicle simulation efforts, showing improved correlation to on-track racecar performance,” said Brian Pillar, Wayne Taylor Racing Engineer.

S-E-A is proud of the fact that the VIMF has remained the gold standard in vehicle inertia measurement devices for nearly two decades, and of the fact that its robust design and efficient operation have provided reliable measurements for over 5,000 full-scale vehicle tests.  Given the history of the VIMFs, and S-E-A’s ongoing efforts to keep VIMFs up-to-date, the firm anticipates that they (and other VIMF owners) will continue doing thousands of more tests on their VIMFs, in the years to come.
S-E-A is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and has nine additional offices located in the United States. Established in 1970, S-E-A is an acknowledged leader in vehicle dynamics testing, forensic engineering and pre/post market product testing for a variety of manufacturing and private label industries. The full-time staff consists of engineers, scientists, technicians and investigators who are licensed, registered professionals and court-qualified experts in their respective fields.  For additional information about S-E-A, please visit the website www.sealimited.com.