Bergstrom expands with new testing lab to ensure peak product performance

March 21, 2013

Bergstrom Inc., a global leader in the design and supply of climate systems to the commercial vehicle industry, has installed a new testing facility and vehicle prep and instrumentation building at its Rockford, Ill. headquarters, giving the company the ability to conduct highly-reliable in-house testing.

The testing lab and instrumentation and vehicle prep building compliment Bergstrom’s current thermal testing, and can prepare vehicles for testing prior to pulling them in the Vehicle Environment Chamber (VEC). This increases VEC test utilization and cuts out wasted time.

The lab is also able to test cab pressurization, cab leakage, individual air quantity measurements, additional non VEC required tests, complete prototype installations, NITE system installations, service instruction training and also includes a combined vibration and thermal chamber for HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) for Bergstrom products.

In addition, the company also added a new staging room and environmental lab.

"Bergstrom continues to invest in new, top-of-the-line testing facilities,” said John Bracey, vice president of engineering for Bergstrom. "With the new addition to our lab, and further investments in high speed data acquisition and controls, we continue to make sure our testing provides highly accurate and repeatable results to give honest and reliable performance for your NITE systems and all our products. The new Bergstrom lab is a state-of-the-art facility that keeps us at the forefront of testing capabilities in our industry.”

Features of the instrumentation and vehicle prep building include:

• 3 main bays
• HALT chamber, which arrived in December 2012
• Liquid nitrogen tank for the HALT chamber
• Large scroll air compressor

Bergstrom also recently installed high-speed Infrared Video Imaging for heat gain and loss viewing, coil circuit trouble shooting, improved visualization, defrost flow visualization, cold control location viewing and electrical heat dissipation.

Bergstrom has also added vehicle thermal management solutions that give engineers the possibility to work on detailed models of vehicle thermal management subsystems like air-conditioning and in-cabin heating systems.

As a result of Bergstrom’s recent acquisition of Dirna, a new calorimeter will be installed in the Bergstrom Europe facility in 2013, providing added vehicle and component testing capabilities in Europe

For more information about Bergstrom Inc.’s testing capabilities,  go to us.bergstrominc.com.