Vehicle Environmental Test Center
Allison Transmission’s new Vehicle Environmental Test (VET) Center is a new, one-of-a-kind testing facility located on the company’s headquarters campus in Indianapolis, IN. This industry-leading facility allows OEMs, body builders, suppliers, and end-users to satisfy their vehicle testing needs in a single environment-controlled location year-round.
The VET Center is one of only a few extreme climate testing chambers in the country that can handle large trucks and buses and alter the test environment from -54°F to 125°F and simulate up to 18,000-ft elevation. The facility tests the following vehicles:
- On-highway
- Off-highway
- Conventional fuel
- Electric and hybrid
- Alternative fuel
- Wheeled defense
IMEG provided structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design and services for the 60,000-sf facility. The building houses an ambient soak chamber, cold soak chamber, hot soak chamber, and two environmental testing chambers. The design also included one medium duty and one heavy duty all-wheel drive chassis dyno within chambers capable of simulating a broad range of environmental conditions, emission testing and applications.
To support the extreme testing conditions needed in this facility, IMEG provided a unique design that included low temperature Syltherm chiller serving five custom air handling units and altitude simulation equipment.
This innovative center‘s controlled laboratory conditions eliminate dependence on weather conditions and variations in fuel economy and performance testing, while providing reliable and repeatable data for product development.
