Roof Strength Test

The inside iihs series of videos offers a behind the scenes glimpse of the work of the insurance institute for highway safety s vehicle research center.

Roof strength test.

The playback speed of this video has been increased. The plate normally crushes at a rate of about 1 8 inch per second. 4 of 12 small suvs evaluated earn top marks arlington va the insurance ins. Roof strength the measure of roof strength was obtained from nhtsa s office of vehicle safety research roof crush test data.

The following video shows how the roof strength test is conducted. The roof strength rating is based on a test in which a metal plate is pushed against one side of the vehicle s roof at a slow constant speed. Roof crush testing of one side of the vehicle one sided testing was performed from april 2001 through march 2008 on 75 passenger vehicles. In order to earn a good rating a vehicle s roof must withstand a.

In this test of the 2010 buick lacrosse the peak force is 19 571 pounds for a strength to weight ratio of 4 90 and a good rating. Iihs news release march 24 2009 roof strength is focus of new rating system. The iihs roof strength crash test is conducted by pushing a metal plate at constant speed against one side of a vehicle s roof.