The good people at Volkswagen Group Africa have earlier last week announced the official opening of their new R20-million airbag deployment centre after nearly a two year build.
Construction of the new centre based at the company’s B Plant in Kariega took place from June 2022 until February 2024. The investment and upgrade will boost the plant’s airbag testing capacity to 150% of its previous output.
The new airbag deployment centre will perform test on the locally built Polo and Polo Vivo models, though the centre will also be able to test future Volkswagen models and perform tests for external customers if this arises.
To put things in perspective, the existing facility is able to perform 48 tests per week, including three dashboards and 45 seats, the new airbag deployment centre can handle a total of 72 tests, comprising 10 dashboards, two curtain airbag tests and 60 seats per week.
“Our promise to customers has always been high-quality vehicles, and that includes the safety standards of our products,” said Martina Biene, Volkswagen Group Africa Chairperson and Managing Director.
Of the R20-million investment, R14-million alone has been spent on the climatic chamber in which the tests are performed, with the rest of the funds spent on building and electrical supply, cameras, air supply to the chamber, and lighting.
According to Volkswagen, the climatic chamber makes use of electrical heaters and two refrigerant circuits to control the temperatures required for the different tests, which are conducted between 90 degrees to -40 degrees Celsius. The process is quite detailed.
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