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May 28, 1993
USA TODAY
Redefining Safety Standards
On High Performance Race Cars
This year Indy 500 drivers will race with crash recorders on their cars. Safety standards had been based on G forces in a crash. GM engineers will now be able to study these forces in an attempt to improve the safety of race cars and passenger vehicles.
Application
An Instrumented Sensor Technology, Inc. (IST) shock and vibration sensor recorder will now be mounted inside the car. The unit is totally self-contained and requires no wiring or power from the car and is also waterproof. It is about the size of a club sandwich. The IST recorder weights 2.2 lbs.
Operation
The data recorder constantly measures and records G forces from three directions by severity and duration before and after the crash. (G is a unit of acceleration equal to about 32 feet per second². A body falling near the earth’s surface is accelerating at 1G.)
Analysis
After a crash, data is downloaded from the recorders into a computer and analyzed by GM’s researchers. Instrumented Sensor Technology, Inc., is a worldwide leader in supplying portable, programmable, high speed recorders for dynamic environments and IST recorders were mandatory equipment on all Indy race car through the better part of the 1990’s.
For more information, contact:
Instrumented Sensor Technology
4704 Moore, St. Okemos, MI 48864
Ph: 517-349-8487
Fax: 517-349-8469
website: http://www.isthq.com
email: info@isthq.com
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