Mission Possible: Maruti Suzuki’s 600 acre playground aims to keep cars and people safe

Maruti Suzuki’s 600 acres of unique playground in Rohtak near Delhi in the state of Haryana has around 1400 engineers playing ball almost every day of their lives, not to win trophies for themselves, but to keep the cars we drive and the people in and around them as safe as possible. “More than 30 different kinds of tracks have been built into the playground which our engineers cherish.....It’s the kind and level of work we are doing here that keeps them occupied and charged up. That’s a major motivation for our engineers here,” says CV Raman, Executive Director, Engineering, Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

Raman was addressing journalists while demonstrating the extent of work being carried out at Maruti Suzuki’s global R&D Centre in Rohtak. The centre which has already seen an investment of Rs 1900 crore in Phase I, will see an additional investment of a similar amount till November 2019 when work in phase II ends, taking the total investment to Rs 3800 crore. The centre is poised to become one of the most advanced R&D facilities in India and amongst the top facilities in Asia.

Also, it is not every other day that Maruti Suzuki allows you to witness a brand new Maruti Suzuki Ignis car travel through a remote mechanism at a speed of 56 odd kilometres per hour and crash into a 90-tonne concrete block with loads of sensors and cameras along with two advanced Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs), a.k.a. crash test dummies sitting in the front seats,  recording in the process every micro second of the test in order to collate data that would help the company build safer cars as well as ensure that people sitting inside escape from any fatal injures post a crash.

Just to understand the immense capability of at least one sophisticated equipment at the centre, it is pertinent to note that the cameras installed at the centre capture the crashes at anywhere between 1000 frames per second to 10,000 frames per second (fps). A high end camera used by auto journalists to capture speeding cars and bikes for their reviews have a capability of around 60 fps, while a DJI Osmo recording camera has 120fps capability while a Go Pro has around 240fps capability.

So what is this centre all about? Spread over a 600-acre campus (600 acres have been developed and another 100 acres lie unused as of now), this integrated R&D Centre has state-of-the-art vehicle testing and evaluation labs, besides a world class proving ground with 31 unique test tracks that traverse over 31 kilometres replicating real life terrains. Thus Maruti Suzuki wants to not only cherish the initiative of “Make in India”, but is also ushering in an era of “Create in India”.

The centre has a 5.9 km long high-speed track with 2km straight stretches on either side. Along its periphery is a 35 degree banking track where a car can be driven at high speeds of around 190kmph. The track itself is no ordinary one, having been built by an international company specialised in such tasks. The machines deployed for building these tracks were GPS enabled and the task was carried out with utmost precision.

Besides the high-speed track, the centre has several unique test tracks like Belgian Block Road, Straight Block Road, S-Type Block Road, Twist Ditch, Undulated Road, Speed breakers, water wading roads, highway road, low friction road, vehicle dynamics area, NVH roads (for testing noise, vibration and harshness of a vehicle), ABS track for  endurance test, etc.  The entire track area is also interspersed with 13 lagoons, some of which continue to hold water and are homes to several migratory birds! These lagoons play a critical role in ensuring that there is no water logging during rains and since they are inter connected they ensure that water is evenly distributed in these lagoons.

While these open air tracks are used to test the capabilities of the car on the performance, durability and comfort front, it is the 5664 square metre Passive Safety Lab that holds the key to all safety related matters. Apart from the crash lab area here, there is a soak room, sled facility (crash tests are carried out here with the shell of a car), pedestrian lab and even a dummy calibration lab. These sophisticated dummies are priced at around Rs 30 lakh to as much as 90 lakh. The pedestrian testing is done with new generation devices and products fitted with sensors and cameras that can assess the damage occurred to areas like the skull, neck and the entire leg (femur, knee and tibia) during a head on crash. Here, while the car is stationary, sophisticated machines push the testing devices at speeds of 35kmph on to the front of the car in order to determine the damage.

But it is the offset crash test and side impact tests carried out at higher speeds that enable the engineers at the Rohtak R&D centre to determine how safe the car is post an accident, for the occupants of the car. Since the time the centre has become operational, Maruti Suzuki has carried out at least 200 such tests. Post each test, the brand new car is dismantled and disposed of as scarp. But it is the invaluable data that helps the company make better and safer cars. Crash tests of such nature carried out in government testing centres like ARAI or iCAT could cost as much as Rs 15 lakh per test which does not include the cost of the vehicle!

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) – Strengthening its Engineering Prowess

 Way back in the 1980s when Maruti Suzuki India Ltd was known as Maruti Udyog Ltd , its engineers  enhanced their skills by visiting Suzuki’s global engineering facilities in Japan for a maximum four to five months. But more than a decade later they were sent for as long as two years which led to better exposure and learning for Maruti Suzuki engineers. The journey of the company and the prowess of its engineers can be summed up in four phases: Phase 1 involved mere localisation and product offering, Phase 2 involved face-lift, co-design and development, Phase 3 involved full body change and Phase 4 involved a global development. So whether it was the facelift of the Zen car in 2003, the co-design of Swift with the Suzuki global R&D team in 2005, the working on the full body change of Alto in 2012, or the making of the compact SUV Vitara Brezza in 2016, each of this marked a new high for Maruti engineers. “Of course all of this was done with a lot of hand holding from Suzuki of Japan,” says Raman.

The Vitara Brezza was conceptualised, designed and developed in India using Suzuki’s engine and core technology. The car became a reality using some of the contemporary facilities of this Rohtak R&D Centre.

So, while vehicle design, development and testing require the most sophisticated equipment, more important is to develop capability of engineers over time to optimally utilise these facilities to ensure customer satisfaction.

Over the last decade, Maruti Suzuki has systematically trained and developed engineers for R&D by giving them exposure to new model development as well as doing special projects along with the more experienced engineers at SMC Japan on design and technology. Nearly 35% of R&D engineers in MSIL have already been trained at Suzuki, Japan for up to two years, and built the competence to create modern vehicles with advanced features and high quality and safety.

The world class testing facilities at Rohtak and the capability of Maruti Suzuki engineers have now converged. Working in close partnership with the R&D team in Suzuki, Japan, MSIL will be able to test and evaluate vehicles at this R&D Centre.

Meeting safety norms ahead of time

Vitara Brezza is the first vehicle in India to be certified for offset and side impact crashes, much ahead of the advanced safety regulations to be mandated by the government in India. Vitara Brezza was certified by the homologation agency before its launch in March 2016, well before the advanced regulations come into effect in India.

Interestingly five Maruti Suzuki models now certified are for advanced safety, ahead of regulation. Ignis, the company’s first urban compact vehicle, offers all advanced safety ahead of regulations timeframe of the government. Like the Vitara Brezza, Ignis was also tested and evaluated at the crash labs and proving ground   in Rohtak’s R&D Centre. At its launch in January 2017, all variants of Ignis were officially certified for all advanced safety norms on offset, side impact and pedestrian safety.

In addition, in the last few months, Maruti Suzuki models S-Cross, Ciaz, Baleno and Ertiga have been tested and certified by official homologation agencies for advanced safety regulations on offset, side impact and pedestrian safety. To meet the advanced safety regulations, each of these vehicles has undergone 35-40 tests during design and development over 3-4 years. About 75-80% of cars in the Maruti Suzuki portfolio would become compliant to these norms, about a year ahead of them becoming mandatory in India.

Suzuki Total Effective Control Technology (TECT)

In developing products, Maruti Suzuki R&D has been focussing on several aspects like design, technology, comfort & convenience and infotainment, along with advanced safety. Adding an air bag, or any other additional safety equipment alone is not an answer to making a safe, smart car. To meet advanced regulations in safety as well as emissions without compromising performance, an overall optimisation of vehicle design and systems is essential.

It is here that the global R&D team at Suzuki, Japan and MSIL has developed a new 5th Generation vehicle platform that is designed to provide advanced safety to occupants, without compromising on fuel efficiency, emission or performance. Called Total Effective Control Technology (TECT), this breakthrough innovation ensures that the vehicle is safer, stronger, 10pc more rigid while being 15pc lighter.

Through TECT, the vehicle structure is engineered in a way that in the event of an accident, the crash energy is absorbed by impacted sides while keeping the occupant compartment safe. This latest platform directs the crash energy from the vehicle front to the rear keeping the compartment intrusions minimal. TECT also ensures that the safety systems such as seat belt/airbag remain in the correct position to provide maximum protection to the occupant.

Besides TECT, Maruti Suzuki also used new material like high tensile steel (stronger and safer while being lighter) and many other innovations, to keep their vehicles safe, fuel efficient, nature friendly and great on the performance front. One of its latest model, the Baleno, is a TECT marvel. Baleno is nearly 90 Kgs lighter than a conventional platform and is consequently more fuel efficient. Its longer wheelbase gives more space, comfort and convenience to occupants. And to top it, Baleno meets all advanced safety regulations. It is obvious that the Rohtak R&D Centre will continue to play a very important role in the making of all the future models from Maruti Suzuki, while its engineers will continue to play ball at its 600 acre playground!