IAV invests in attractive growth market with new EMC Test Center

“With our test center we will, as one of very few engineering partners in Europe, be in a position to deliver our customers the complete EMC development process as a one-stop shop and from a single source, beginning with the specification sheet, support in EMC-optimized hardware development, integration into the overall vehicle with subsequent release recommendation”, says Chief Technology Officer Matthias Kratzsch. “With this, we underline our technological leadership in an attractive growth market.”

The new building marks IAV’s response to the sustained demand from the automotive industry for EMC measuring and testing capacities despite the coronavirus pandemic. Construction of the EMC Test Center is due to begin in the late autumn of this year. The launch is scheduled for early 2022.

The heart of IAV’s new test center is an EMC test lab with its own electromagnetic zero-emission chassis dynamometer for vehicles. IAV experts can cover all inspection-relevant driving modes during the tests on the chassis dynamometer, such as accelerating, braking or recuperating. The lab is supplemented by an EMC component test facility where components ranging from parking sensors to complete high-voltage vehicle batteries can be measured.

The EMC Test Center is due to be accredited by the DAkkS (national accreditation body for Germany) immediately after completion. With this, IAV guarantees its customers that the test results will be acknowledged both nationally and internationally, and that the quality standard is established.

Besides the agreed long-term cooperation with a German car manufacturer, the IAV Test Center with its component and vehicle testing facility is also available for use by other vehicle manufacturers and suppliers. “Our experts on site can help our customers to identify and correct electromagnetic incompatibilities in their vehicles and components at an early stage in the process and, thus, avoid expensive cross-checking”, says CTO Kratzsch. “This underlines our promise to our customers to solve their most urgent problems.”

Safeguarding EMC in modern vehicles is an increasingly demanding task. The number of potential sources of interference is growing with additional radio services and electric drive systems. At the same time, there is also a rise in the number of receiver units that have to be protected from electromagnetic influences.

Electromagnetic interference can cause unintended effects in the vehicle and malfunctions in electronic systems. All manufacturers of electronic devices thus have to prove that their products comply with the EMC directives. To this end, components and products are tested in special EMC testing facilities. The tests look at whether the device’s emissions remain below a certain level, thus ensuring that the device does not interfere, neither with the environment, nor with the system where it is installed or fitted. Furthermore, the test specimen itself is exposed to electromagnetic interference to diagnose possible malfunctions, so that these can then be eliminated.

Employing more than 8,000 members of staff, IAV is one of the world’s leading engineering partners to the automotive industry. The company has been developing innovative concepts and technologies for future vehicles for more than 35 years, generating turnover of around 1 billion euros in 2019. The client base includes all renowned automotive manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. Besides vehicle and powertrain development, IAV has been involved in electromobility and autonomous driving from an early stage and is today one of the leading engineering providers in this fields. Together with the Development Centers in Berlin, Gifhorn and Chemnitz/Stollberg, IAV also has sites in Munich, Sindelfingen and Ingolstadt, as well as other European countries, Asia and also North and South America.