How Ford measurement space in the new Ford Escape? With ping-pong
How many ping-pong is that the all-new Ford Escape may contain? Approximately 56 778.
Ford uses a unique way to measure the storage space inside its vehicles and those of its competitors, and it is not using a rule but rather with ping-pong.
"It may seem surprising, but the ping-pong is a more precise rule for measuring the volume of certain areas with irregular shapes like a glove box," said Eric Jackson, supervisor of vehicle architecture.
There are several years, Ford measured the ability of glove boxes, center consoles and other small spaces in the interior of a vehicle using a rule, by multiplying the length by the width and height to find the volume. But with angles, curves and irregular shapes found in a vehicle, the engineers and designers were not satisfied with the accuracy and consistency of this method. According to Jackson, it is a Ford engineer who proposed the idea of using ping-pong to measure capacity.
"It was a weird idea that a brainstorming team is out, says Jackson. But we then searches using the ping-pong and we discovered that the capacity could thus be measured more consistently. "
Team Jackson came to the conclusion that if two people measure the same space with a measuring tape, they often find different results because of variations in methods. By cons, if two people use ping-pong to measure capacity, they are more likely to get the same result.
The precise way in which the volume is measured with ping-pong is pretty simple, says Sejal Shreffler, engineer of use and comfort for Ford. The engineers at Ford have developed a cubic measurement for each ping-pong table that reflects the open space between each ball. They then use this data and add the total number of ping-pong in the content area to determine a total capacity.
The engineers have also used the computer aided design (CAD) to calculate the volume.
Laser scanning
Shreffler and his team also use a laser scanning allows a Ford to get the surface information of the competition CAD. Shreffler possible to obtain a 3D digital representation of visible surfaces of a vehicle. The information is the analysis result and the space is evaluated in CAD. This technology can be used to measure different parts of a vehicle and obtain information on the volume of cargo or trunk has gloves.
"Our team evaluated a dozen consumer goods like iPads, mountain bikes and wheelchairs to ensure that these objects have a place in our vehicles," says Shreffler.
Ingenious spaces
The all-new Ford Escape offers several spaces in the interior of the vehicle to store various items such as umbrellas, bottles and cell phones.
Unique storage spaces include:
a visor for parking tickets;
storage space hidden behind the rear seats;
small umbrella on the side of the driver and passenger;
a place to store maps below, and a storage space above the instrument panel;
a space in the middle of the console to store a bottle of water from a liter, an MP3 player or CD;
USB ports practices in the center console and a 110-volt outlet to plug in laptops, chargers, cell phones or other electronic items.
