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An All Wheel Drive Spin-Torsional Dynamometer facility has been constructed at the Advanced Engineering Center of Ford Motor Company, adding unique capability for powertrain NVH testing. This state-of-the-art facility is designed to concurrently deliver controlled rotational and torsional engine inputs to the drivetrain. While the facility supports the use of a live engine for input, it is also equipped with an engine simulator to allow detailed examination of the NVH characteristics of new powertrain configurations before prototype powerplants are available, without the need for a live engine. This will reduce development timing for new powertrains significantly. The virtual engine consists of a driving dynamometer coupled with a high frequency servo-hydraulic torsional actuator.

A portable in-vehicle NVH data acquisition and analysis system is required to support the product development timing necessary to be competitive in today's automotive market. The components of such a system should include rugged hardware and software to support NVH data acquisition and analysis for frequently performed tests. The system should be easy for the vehicle development engineers to operate while producing results with a high confidence level. Once the data has been measured and analyzed, the system should support automated reporting and databasing of the results. The availability of such a system would make it easy for the vehicle development engineers to perform standardized tests with standardized analysis and reporting. Such a system has been successfully developed at Ford Motor Company.