The second edition of the Automotive Testing Expo 2012 got underway at the Chennai Trade Centre. The three-day event features some of the biggest names in automotive testing including IDADA, Horiba, AVL, Honeywell, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions and the Automotive Research Association of India, to mention some of the key players.

On display are a variety of equipment and software designed to handle a gamut of testing requirements from emissions and engine testing to NVH, vehicle simulation, track simulation, occupant safety and sensors and transducers. The Expo also features a series of special technology workshops on topics ranging from NVH testing to advances in transmission testing. Participation at this event has been motivated by the growth in India’s automotive sector as well as the need to have the best equipment to facilitate top-quality testing. Personnel from the automotive trade along with their foreign principals, and students from engineering colleges as far as Warangal in Andhra Pradesh were present at the event.

While India’s national automotive testing project or NATRiP is one of the drivers of the business, another is the establishment of R&D facilities by companies like Maruti which is setting up a full-fledged facility at Rohtak in Haryana.

The importance of having the best facilities in testing from testbeds to vibration isolation products and emissions has to be seen in context of the fact that as Indian companies target markets in the US and Europe, they need to have the best equipment to be able to meet the necessary regulations.

The first Automotive Testing Expo was held at Hyderabad two years ago.

BRIAN DE SOUZA