Tongji University Doctoral: Safety is the Bottom Line of the Automotive Industry

Tongji University Automotive Department Professor, Doctoral Supervisor Wang Hongyan

"Keeping Castle Peak is not burning wood." This is the first sentence of an interview made by Wang Hongyan, a professor of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University, a doctoral supervisor, a member of the Shanghai Automotive Engineering Society and director of the Safety Committee of the Shanghai Automotive Engineering Society. In response to neat and short hair, facing the hundreds of people in the industry who freely talked about the free manners, people can deeply feel the personal style of this capable female automotive professor. Over the years research on the safety of automobiles has made her It was also very rigorous when interviewed by reporters.

Prof. Wang Hongyan received an exclusive interview with the reporter after he delivered the keynote speech on the automobile restraint system and high-speed collision protection on the body interior and exterior seminar organized by Gasgoo.com on January 14. She explained the relationship between brand, cost and vehicle safety in a simple and easy way, the research status and breakthrough of automotive safety in vehicle design, and the importance of national security awareness.

Car safety from the perspective of consumers: choose the most cost-effective automotive products

Wang Hongyan said that first of all car brands and safety can not be fully equated. Consumers want to break the concept of brand superstition. Of course, the establishment of a brand takes decades or even hundreds of years of historical accumulation. In order to protect their brand influence, car companies are bound to work hard in all aspects, including the emphasis on car safety. However, does not the famous car brand Toyota have experienced a sensation in the global recall? Therefore, to a certain extent, brand and safety should be equal, but they can not be completely equated and completely superstitious about car brands.

Wang Hongyan also has his own understanding of another factor that the consumer considers: price. Car costs consist of three major pieces: materials, designs, and processes. Among them, the latter is a unique means of ensuring the quality of automobiles. Why do some brands in the market in a large price cuts, the price has always been falling down? This is because these companies cannot afford to cut prices in a way that hurts the performance of cars. For example, some car companies put forward a 2mm project, that is, the manufacturing error is less than 2mm. This is a very high requirement for assembly accuracy. One problem that cannot be avoided is that the process has to pay for the cost increase. . If the error is placed at 8mm, manufacturing requirements will be greatly reduced and the cost will be reduced. But this is a great detriment to the safety of the car.

Therefore, when consumers choose a car, they must consider the brand, price, performance, appearance and other factors in order to buy the most cost-effective products.

From the perspective of car companies to see the relationship between maximizing car safety performance and reducing costs: only choose right, not expensive

Wang Hongyan believes that the cost-effectiveness of automotive products is based on extensive experimental research. Taking the safety device as an example, from the existing safety devices, no less than 100 types have been used and will be used, but what kind of device can maximize the safety of the car? Such as airbags, there are frontal airbags, side airbags and other different products, is it a car to be loaded with more than a dozen different airbags? Do we need so much? What kind of airbag is most useful to install? Answering the above series of questions requires the study of accidents. Whether or not security is good depends on how important it is to protect people after an accident. After the study, we can see that this car product does not have to contain 10 airbags at all, and only two of the most targeted ones are sufficient, which greatly reduces the cost of car production and also ensures the safety of the car.

It is understood that after five years of preparation, in January 2010, Tongji University took the lead in establishing the Shanghai Joint Road Traffic Safety Science Research Center. As an open research platform, the accident research data is shared by companies to guide the safety research of vehicles. Volkswagen, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Citroen, etc. The entire vehicle company; Bosch, Autoliv and other large parts and components companies, the National Quality Inspection Bureau defective product recall center, vehicle testing center and other institutions are Shanghai Joint Road Traffic Safety Science Research Center Member units.

To ensure the safety of the car, the safety product quality itself and the matching with the car body are indispensable

It is worth noting that although airbags and seat belts are important components of a vehicle restraint system, in the course of investigation of some traffic accidents, it will be found that airbags and safety will sometimes become invisible threats to the driver and passengers. To address this issue, Professor Wang Hongyan proposed the concept of "matching design." “There are no two traffic accidents in the world that are exactly the same. Therefore, it is impossible for an automotive safety product to cover all accidents. All safety devices must be matched with the car. Safety products are advanced, and matching is not good. It can only be done with half the effort. Its technology for implementing safety products such as airbags is constantly evolving, which further highlights the importance of matching design." As a professor of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University, doctoral tutor, Wang Hongyan during the interview Showed the importance of accident research and pre-test. It can be seen that large-scale good automotive products, small-scale safety devices, and closed-door vehicles cannot truly achieve breakthroughs in technology and results.

The fundamental gap lies in national consciousness, not in technology itself.

In terms of automotive safety and restraint systems, foreign countries always walk ahead of us. There is a gap in the technology itself, but basically it is the gap in consciousness. Professor Wang Hongyan mentioned an interesting phenomenon: Many returnees live abroad. Children are equipped with safety seats, but after returning home, they are no longer used. Wang Hongyan attributed the reason to the lack of understanding of the Chinese people and the lack of safety awareness. However, she optimistically predicted that the process of continuous improvement of the Chinese people in this area will be greatly accelerated. Correspondingly, the state will gradually implement relevant laws and regulations. She said: "Technical breakthroughs are not difficult. What is difficult is the awakening of the awareness of the people under the social environment."

In the past 2010, China's automobile production and sales reached 18 million, making it the world's largest auto market. We have reason to believe that more and more car brands, more and more new car technologies, and more and more beautiful car designs will come into being. However, regardless of how the automotive industry is making rapid progress, we must always adhere to the bottom line of security.