| Boshart Engineering may not be a company that springs
to many people's lips in the UK when considering vehicle testing, but
it has been doing very nicely, thank you in North America where it has
carved out a profitable niche for itself. One of its main planks is in
providing emission certification testing services to vehicle manufacturers
for compliance with all North American-based regulators. These include
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the California Air Resources
Board (CARB), the states within the Northeast Trading Region (NTR) and
Environment Canada.
Support can be as simple as providing information on OBDII phase-in timing
for a particular diagnostic to complete Part 1 and Part 2 data generation,
compilation and submission including all required durability and emission
testing for the EPA certificate of conformity and CARB executive order
issuance.
"Right now our biggest customer is GM Daewoo," says Ken Boshart,
company president, speaking from his office in Ontario, California, "and
we are helping them put all their vehicles through the certification processes."
These would include useful-life 100,000, 120,000 and 150,000 mile durability
testing for the determination of emission deterioration factors as well
as OBD - on-board diagnostics - demonstration testing for CARB OBD compliance.
"The majority of our workforce here in California as well as at our
other site in Ann Arbor, Michigan are drivers," says Boshart. "Their
duties typically are emissions testing in the lab and whole vehicle testing
in the real world where typical tests can range from 4,000 miles to 150,000
miles and everything in between. We also carry out brake and tyre testing,
hot and cold fuel handling, putting a vehicle through extreme conditions
of heat or cold, vibration and dust and evaluate passenger comfort systems.
"One of the advantages of our office here in California is that it
is strategically located within a few miles of the mountains or the desert
and also conveniently near the 10 and 15 freeways in southern California,"
says Boshart. "We have established routes that are recognised by
CARB and EPA, but we can also develop routes for our clients should they
so wish. Within a radius of 360 miles are elevations that range from below
sea level to over 10,000 feet."
Boshart Engineering also has durability locations in Arizona, Colorado,
North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, Korea and Australia.
One of the areas that is causing carmakers some worry is the regulation
called On-Board Diagnostics In-Use Frequency Monitoring that is being
phased in with model year '04 cars that have to have an improved OBD monitoring
system. If a vehicle is found not to be complying, then CARB reserves
the right to make that manufacturer recall the model. The stakes are therefore
high and so the car manufacturers need to ensure that the equipment is
not going to malfunction, which is very good news indeed for Ken Boshart.
"In the past, once the vehicle was on the road, one or more of the
diagnostics would not run, so get around this 'malfunction' CARB is now
enforcing a regulation whereby the diagnostic must run at least once out
of 10 'trips' - a 'trip' having a well-defined criterion to ensure there
is no misunderstanding.
By 2007, this will be applied to all new vehicles with some diagnostics
having to operate every other 'trip'. CARB can request manufacturers to
provide it with 15 vehicles for testing within the first six months of
sale. It is therefore essential that carmakers ensure that the OBD systems
do not fail and this is where we are very active in helping."
Boshart Engineering's other services include the determination of driving
patterns exhibited by the owners of particular vehicles being studied
and the retrieval of sub-components from target vehicles. "This may
relate to a particular component exhibiting a high failure rate or it
can be used in future product development or improvement," says Boshart.
This company is typical of the many specialist companies that spring up
to service particular industries. It may be small but without it playing
a vital development role, many vehicles would never be able to come to
market - and many manufacturers could find themselves in the embarrassing
position of having to recall their cars.
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