CEVT’s new labs in the making at Uni3 by Geely

Cevt's labs in the making at Uni3 by Geely

 

In this Q&A, Conny Almkvist, Project Leader CEVT proving ground, takes us through them all. Supported by Sören Nasenius System Manager EE Facility/Equipment. 

1. How many labs are there?                                                                                               
The setup of the lab area are based on flexibility to meet the needs from different projects. When we move in, there will be almost 25 lab areas, each with a different purpose, but we think this will change over time.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

2. Why are we installing these?                                                                                           
In the very beginning of the Uni3 by Geely planning, a discussion about Lab need was held and a decision by Mr An in June 2018 was taken to plan for lab - to support CEVT business, which is an enabler to work with innovation concepts and development.                                                                                                                                                                                   

3. Can you quickly go through each lab?                                                                           
Since we have been planning this from the decision point, and CEVT have been doing different transformations we have a plan but are also adaptive to meet the need for Future Mobiltiy solution

There is a Mechanical workshop or handicraft workshop maybe better wording - in this area we should be able to create simple prototypes by metal, plastic, wood etc. With this we could illustrate new ideas for concepts. Typical processes are welding, cutting, bending, drilling, milling etc. 

We will also have measuring capacity by a both a probe and touchless scanning equipment.                                                                                          

The VR area is of course a progressive tool to visualize the engineering solutions both for product but also for process purpose. This is were the very first idea can be reveiwed I would say. Then it can become some kind of hardware.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Electrical integration testing is an area with several different capacities both on component/system level but also up to complete vehicle where we will be able to use our electrical rig for complete car testing - using this tool for complete vehicle electrical testing and functionality testing is a enabler to secure right quality when we start build vehicles.                                    

In the cellar we will have build lab capabilties for Driving simulator, Test vehicles, Sound and Illumiation studio.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

4. What is the greatest opportunity in this?
With some well planned investments we will get a substantial capapbilty to develop both virtual test models as well as innovative concept visualization. As guiding star we develop the labs with flexibility to be able to meet CEVT’s future work with the different key technology areas                                                                                                                                                                                    

5. Has there been any challenges on the way?                                                                  
I would also like to say that there has not been that many challenges, besides understanding new terminology of construction work, since the construcion team has been very flexibel and understand of the needs to get right setup for our Lab – I really appreciate to collaborate with them.                                                                                                                                                

One challenge was of course the Driving Simulator - the immediate respons was that there is no floor with such height - and I just said - design a hole in the floor of the first floor and make the height far more than we need - since the final decision for the investment of Driving Simulator was not done yet - it could have been a major hole without any content in worst case.                                                                                                                                                                                   

In one of our labs, we asked for a one way transparent glass wall. Nowadays called the interrogation room. When we made an inspection we concluded it was no mirror as expected from one side. Asked to change - and it was changed, however this time we could not see through the expected direction - it was turned the other way around. This casued some laughs.                                                                                                                                                           

6. What are your hopes that we will accomplish here?
We want to ensure we have the right capability to support the different projects and concept development in CEVT,that can keep us in the front in the automotive industry and to be able to deliver great value to Geely.                                                                                                                              

7. Where are we in the building phase? 
Right now we are crosschecking our detailed specifications to ensure we have all installations as planned, we are also planning for the relocation of the equipment and of course preparing for what we need to invest to get the right capability of the different lab areas. It is for sure a hectic but exciting time. 

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