Audi team tracks cracks and creaks
31 July 2002: Audi has a dedicated 'noise team' to eliminate all those annoying creaks and cracks that can happen in a new car during its development.
Innumerable tests on the road and on test rigs are carried out until the last problems are silenced, including those that irritatingly only appear when certain road surface conditions, temperatures, speeds or distances are encountered or driven.
Eckhard 'The Ear' Peithmann, pictured above with colleague Carsten Vortanz heads the team and admits that it can often be a slow, drawn out affair. "This job calls for a sensitive ear but also a great deal of patience," he says. "Some noises can only be heard after the umpteenth test. This work can’t be taught at school or during a training course and can severely test an individual’s patience - the work is not to everyone’s taste."
Noise analysis for any particular Audi model takes an entire year. Every four to six weeks, members of the team begin another test drive. Either in the bitter cold on test routes in Scandinavia or on desert tracks in North Africa. Depending on the complexity of the task, each of these outings may last between six and 12 days.
Additionally, noise is analysed on roller and shaker test rigs, in climatic chambers, with dummy-head microphones and on a hydro pulse facility at Audi’s technical development centre in Ingolstadt, Germany. In Arctic conditions, for example, plastics lose some of their elasticity, their friction coefficients alter and they are therefore more prone to produce noise. Likewise their properties also change when exposed to severe heat which is why Audi also test in North Africa.
Over the years, the 'noise team' has compiled a 'creaking and cracking catalogue' which serves Audi engineers with a basis when developing a new model in order to avoid designs with unwanted noise potential from the very start. The experts can even identify certain sources of noise when looking at the design of a digital model on a computer screen - well before any actual hardware which might crack, rattle, clatter or squeak is even produced.
July 2002