Ford's Arizona Proving Ground Tests Vehicle Durability
18 February 1999
Ford's Arizona Proving Ground Tests Vehicle Durability YUCCA, Ariz., Feb. 18 -- With summer temperatures getting up
to 115 degrees, Ford's extreme climate testing facility in Arizona
provides some of the harshest operating conditions for any vehicle. Arizona
Proving Ground has been testing Ford vehicles for over 40 years. With
customers expecting their car or truck to operate perfectly, whatever the
weather or conditions, the facility is kept busy year-round.
"Arizona Proving Ground not only provides an excellent location for
testing vehicles in extremely hot weather, it also has numerous other
facilities that are used throughout the year for vehicle and component
durability testing," said Roger Ueda, supervisor of testing operations at the
proving ground.
"When we claim our trucks and vans are 'Built Ford Tough', the customer
expects them to live up to that reputation. Through extensive testing at the
Arizona Proving Ground, our vehicle development engineers can put a new
product through a wide variety of simulated and real world conditions," he
said.
Before being bought by Ford and turned into a proving ground, the facility
at Yucca was a former Army Air Corps Base. Through extensive investments over
the past 40 years, the proving ground has expanded to cover more than 3,800
acres and features a 5-mile high-speed test track as well as vehicle
durability areas with a wide variety of simulated road surfaces.
The Arizona Proving Ground is used by Ford to test not only for vehicle
and component durability in heat, but also for acceleration, brake
performance, cooling, fuel, stress, traction and dynamics. Areas such as the
accelerated durability roads, cobblestone surfaces, corrosion test chambers,
wet traction area, sand wash, salt highway, mud and salt baths, water
ingestion and fuel spillage test grades ensure that customers taking delivery
of a Ford truck or van, have a vehicle that has survived the Arizona Proving
Ground.
The Arizona Proving Ground is used extensively by engineers and product
development staff from the Truck Vehicle Center and Large Car Vehicle Center
in Dearborn, Michigan as well as the Small and Medium Car Vehicle Centre in
Europe. The forthcoming new Transit survived many visits to this facility in
the team's quest to ensure total reliability and durability.
Yucca was chosen as the site for Ford's hot climate testing facility
because of its high average temperatures and low annual rainfall. In winter
the average temperature is around 59 degrees, rising to 103 degrees in the
summer months. The highest recorded temperature at the proving ground was 119
degrees in 1996. Average annual precipitation is under 7 inches.
In addition to the physical testing facilities, the Arizona Proving Ground
is equipped with the latest vehicle diagnostic equipment, including a
performance and dynamometer laboratory, fuel analysis station and electronic
data processing linked directly to Ford's Product Development Center in
Dearborn.
The Arizona Proving Ground is part of Ford's Global Test Operations (GTO),
which has responsibility for all test and vehicle prove-out facilities around
the world. Other GTO facilities include the cold climate test facility in
Thompson, Canada, the Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium and the Michigan
Proving Ground near Detroit.
