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Featured Article...
A New Venture
Dr. Patrick Miller - Akron, NY
On November 21st, a Grand Opening was held for our new test laboratory located in Greer, South Carolina. The event was well attended, and our organization was certainly welcomed by the many business and government leaders in the Spartanburg region. Naturally we look forward to a growing operation that will support the local business activities.
I have been asked why we would decide to start a new venture when the economy is so bad. Well, you might call us cockeyed optimists, but we don't feel the situation is so bad, and we also have a history of going against the grain.
MGA was founded in February 1977 near Buffalo, New York with a capitalization of one thousand dollars and no customers. The timing of the three founders, Pat Miller, Jim Greene and Rudy Arendt, could not have been worse. On January 28, 1977, the Western New York region suffered the most severe blizzard to ever hit an American city. In some locations, snow drifts were as high as electric line poles. The entire region was at an economic standstill.
In spite of this hardship, the company was formed. Slowly the local situation began to improve, and we also began to form a small customer base. In retrospect, this initial experience, while extremely difficult, formed the basis for much of the "can-do" attitude that is so much a part of the company culture today.
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Changes to NCAP in 2011
Ben Fischer - Burlington, WI (ben.fischer@mgaresearch.com)
The New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) was developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 1978 to evaluate the crashworthiness of vehicles. Vehicles are tested in both a frontal and side impact crash test and given ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, 5 stars being the highest. The way in which these ratings are determined, however, is about to change. Starting with 2011 model year vehicles, new procedures will be implemented to determine a vehicle's Government Safety Ratings and the corresponding star ratings displayed on a vehicle's window sticker.
The frontal impact test, which simulates a 35mph head-to-head collision of equally weighted vehicles, will see the inclusion of a smaller 5th percentile female dummy in the right front passenger seat to more closely represent typical, real-world accident data.
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Focus on Fixtures... Fixture Verification
One of the most important things about running a test in a laboratory is collecting and interpreting the data. But, how can you be sure that the data being collected properly illustrates what the test article requires? For example, if a test article is being supported by a fixture, how can you be sure that the fixture isn't magnifying or dampening the test levels? A customer needed to know the answer to that very question.
Our customer was going to be using a new fixture in order to hold their products down during vibration and shock testing. The fixture would greatly reduce the time taken to mount and dismount the test articles to the test equipment. The concern was if the test article would result in the same G levels during the testing since a fixture was being used. The first prove-out test was vibration.
First, the fixture was subjected to a vibration sine sweep to determine the frequency at which it would first experience resonance. Once confirmed that the value was well above the required test frequencies, the fixture was subjected to the entire vibration profile it would endure during testing to ensure it was structurally sound.
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Touching Base
with Dr. Patrick Miller - Akron, NY
A Company Lifetime
The current government involvement of the private sector reminds me of the challenges of how to keep a company viable. Most of these organizations are now not financially stable. The hope is that with additional funding, they can eventually become viable organizations.
With over thirty years of leading MGA, I have developed some opinions on what is required to maintain an organization. All companies, much like people, sooner or later die or cease to exist. Their death may take the form of either going out of business or being absorbed into another company where much of their corporate achievements and culture are forever lost.
We hear a great deal about the plight of the three big automobile companies. But, in the grand scheme of company lifetimes, these companies have been remarkably successful. Ford Motor Company is 105 years old, General Motors is 100 years old, and the comparative newcomer, Chrysler, was formed in 1925. Historically, very few private companies have achieved such lifetimes of service. And yet, each of these companies today is struggling to remain in business.
At the time that we formed MGA in 1977, I was aware of about a dozen companies which had formed during the 1970's. Within a 10 year period, virtually all of those companies, except for MGA, were no longer in business. I knew some of the founders and had great respect for their abilities.
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