The world’s hardest crash test!

The French institute for work related accidents, INRS, mandates the toughest ever standard for crashtesting van interiors. The standard mandates a higher collision speed and much more stringent values for interior payload weight than have previously been used. In June, System Edström had the independent test institute Valutec perform a crash test according to INRS NS286. “We were quite certain that we would pass the test”, says Linus Runhede, Design Engineer at Edström. “But I can’t deny that I had some butterflies in my stomach when we saw the test sled coming in over 50 km/h (31 mph). And it certainly was a loud and violent impact! “ “We could see that the interior hadn’t moved much and that all the payloads stayed where they should have been, but it still was a relief when we heard the words from the test guys: C’est une bonne, It’s good; It’s OK! INRS is a big (700 employees) institute which continuously develops the area of occupational risk prevention. The norm NS286 states an impact of at least 25 G and has strictly regulated sizes and weights for payloads in shelves and drawers. The interior has to be mounted according to normal installation instructions. All test institutes agree that NS286 is going to become the common standard for interiors, as the NCAP is for cars. “Another scary thing with NS286 is that all the payloads have to be 80% of the length of the shelves”, Linus continues. “That means that there is actually another impact from behind, a few milliseconds after the first impact. The interior managed both hits very well and it is very satisfying to confirm that we have been thinking, and constructing, in the right direction!” Passing the test will mean a lot to System Edström in all markets; safety is a big factor everywhere nowadays, and for the French market it also means that our customers will enjoy lower insurance fees!