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Ford to increase durability testing to 10 million cumulative miles for
2015 F-150
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Extensive testing proves this all-new F-150 lives up to Built Ford
Tough standards
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Ford went to new extremes – from mountaintops to frozen lakes – to put
the truck through its paces
Company Website:
http://corporate.ford.com/
DEARBORN, Mich. -- (Business Wire)
The all-new 2015 Ford F-150 has already scaled the highest points of the
Continental Divide and experienced the most extreme weather conditions
as Ford has set out to engineer its toughest truck yet.
Before the first 2015 F-150 rolls off the assembly line, it will have
been subjected to 10 million miles of combined real-world and simulated
durability testing.
“We wanted to build the toughest, most capable F-150, while making it as
much as 700 pounds lighter,” said Pete Reyes, Ford F-150 chief engineer.
“We challenged the team to torture the truck harder than any F-150
before it.”
The new F-150 towed trailers over mountain passes in temperatures above
120 degrees, withstood frame-punishing terrain on an off-road course and
conquered a frozen lake at minus 40 degrees. It endured high-humidity
chambers, salt vats and riverbeds. The F-150 towed heavy loads up
grueling, steep roads. Robots slammed its doors and tailgates, and
dropped heavy objects onto the bed of the truck. It persevered through
twisting and shaking from multiple directions.
Some Ford tests are so extreme that a five-day period equals 10 years or
150,000 miles of abuse by the roughest customers. Reyes is quick to
remind customers that the extreme tests Ford runs are conducted in
controlled settings. “I discourage anyone from trying to create their
own top 10 list,” he said. “Leave the testing to us.”
The all-new F-150 has been through hundreds of torture tests. Here are
the 10 toughest:
- Seven-channel
input: Ford built a special torture rack that violently twists
and shakes the truck seven ways – simultaneously – for five days,
simulating the equivalent of 225,000 miles. This testing isn’t random.
After running a fully instrumented truck through durability courses,
engineers recorded the forces the road surface put on various vehicle
components. Those forces are replicated in seven channels – four up
and down, two side to side and one lengthwise down the center. The
frame and body are stressed to see how well the truck performs in
situations that might bend the frame.
- Silver
Creek: The famous Silver Creek durability course in Romeo,
Mich., combines two extremely rough roads. One section of the route
has 15 distinct types of chuckholes, while the other is made from
broken pieces of concrete. Test drivers beg off this route after one
pass because the pounding and speed is so intense. Imagine hitting a
crater-sized pothole every five feet for miles – going 20 mph. With
this road surface, 500 miles is equal to 20,000 miles on the country’s
roughest roads.
- Power
Hop Hill:This washboard Ford test track in Romeo was
created to replicate a steep, off-road dirt trail in the Hualapai
Mountains of northwest Arizona. The severe 11 percent grade – steeper
than the final section of most ski jump ramps – stresses engine and
transmission components when the wheels lose contact and then return
to the surface.
- Drum
drop: Ford engineers dropped 55-gallon drums into the bed of
the truck on an angle, making sure all of the force came down on the
sharp rim of the drum. Engineers in Dearborn, Mich., then measure the
impact and make adjustments until the cargo box floor is suitably
tough.
- Corrosion
bath: The 2015 F-150 is the first high-volume vehicle with a
high-strength steel frame, and body panels made of high-strength,
aluminum alloy – the same material used to make armor-plated tanks and
navy warships. An advantage aluminum has over steel is that it doesn’t
produce red rust. So Ford had to go beyond the usual tests that
include driving vehicles through countless salt baths and soaking them
in high-humidity chambers. The company developed a modified corrosion
test using an acidified spray to be more aggressive on the
high-strength, aluminum alloy. After simulating 10 years of exposure,
the aluminum material showed virtually no signs of degradation.
- Davis
Dam: Run a half-marathon at Olympic-sprinter speed while
carrying a 600-pound duffel bag in 120-degree temperatures, all up a 6
percent grade. Then do it 250 more times. That’s the Davis Dam
durability route that stretches from just outside Bullhead City,
Ariz., to the top of Union Pass. The F-150 climbed for 13 miles at
posted speeds (varying from 35 mph to 65 mph) while pulling maximum
trailer loads and running the air conditioning full blast in the heat
of an Arizona summer.
- Stone
Peck Alley: There’s a special place in Romeo where paint jobs
come to prove their mettle while testers work to protect the metal. To
test paint for the all-new F-150, engineers drove the truck 150 miles
over gravel roads, then another 150 miles over pellets of extremely
jagged scrap iron that is first passed through a blast furnace.
Oversized tires spray the stones and scrap iron at every surface of
the truck.
- Engine
thermal shock: F-150 engines are first placed in a special
cell and hooked to equipment, called a dynamometer, which simulates
pulling a heavy trailer at full throttle up a steep grade. Next,
thermal shock testing takes engines from the coldest polar vortex to
extreme heat in just seconds. The engine coolant and oil are
quick-cooled to minus 20 degrees in as little as 20 seconds, then the
engine runs at maximum power while coolant and oil temperatures
stabilize, first at 230 degrees and then at 270 degrees, before being
chilled again. This process is run 350 times over more than 400 hours
to prove the durability of the engine block, seals, gaskets, cylinder
heads and liners.
- Rock
and stop: Serious off-roaders navigate difficult terrain using
the same drive/reverse/drive technique many drivers use to get unstuck
from snow. Ford performs 500 aggressive starts on a stand specially
designed to torture rear axles. The stand creates impacts at nearly
2,000 lb.-ft. of torque. This is more torque than the truck is capable
of making – 130 percent more and then some – just to be certain the
rear axle and all of its parts can withstand the abuse.
- Twist
ditch: F-150 customers need to trust their trucks in off-road
terrain. The twist ditch is a set of parallel dirt mounds built to
create a situation in which one front wheel hangs in the air while the
opposing rear wheel leaves the ground repeatedly. Only two small
patches of rubber are left to make contact with a slippery surface and
maintain traction. These ditches can put incredible stress on the
truck’s body and frame.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford
Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in
Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six
continents. With about 181,000 employees and 65 plants worldwide, the
company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company
provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more
information regarding Ford and its products worldwide, please visit corporate.ford.com.
For news releases, related materials and high-resolution photos and
video, visit www.media.ford.com.
Contacts:
Ford Motor Company
Mike Levine, 313.323.6854
mlevine5@ford.com
or
Scott
Fosgard, 313.323.7189
sfosgard@ford.com
Source: Ford Motor Company
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