Fortune.com -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 12/13/2000
Last Visited: 3/31/2001
With these technologies , we can repeat in a controlled environment the most damaging forces measured in the real environment , says Greg Harmon , an engineering supervisor at GM.As design times shorten , these technologies speed up what we used to do in the field.This allows us to be proactive in car design , to make them right the first time. But simulated tests aren't likely to replace field tests under real conditions.You never know what might happen under conditions you haven't anticipated , as the huge recall of Firestone tires may show.
After another trial by fire at Du Pont's lab in Richmond , the Thermo-Man manikin reveals hardly any signs of damage from a four-second flash fire.He wears a blue coverall of seven-ounce Nomex and atop that a jacket made of special Polartec fabric that Malden Mills knits from Nomex.