First of all, a big apology to all of you. We have made the mistake of rushing things here, as we were too keen to get things up and running before the Cleaning Show.
We appreciate, now, that displaying the video without fully explaining it, has only led to confusion, and we would like to put a few things straight.
To start with a simple matter, we can assure you that the lid was certainly on tight. We have no interest in, nor cannot hope to benefit by falsifying these results.
The frame of the lid is actually cracked and broken where the lid burst. Of course we still have the machine and vehicle, which can be inspected or photographed as required.
We went to a Ministry of Defence Establishment to obtain a trustworthy validation. They confiscated our mobile phones and wouldn’t let us use our own cameras or videos. There’s no way that they would let us “fix” the result, and there’s no way we would want to falsify the outcome, as this is your safety and our reputation on the line.
Nobody does crash testing at 70mph as they are deemed to be pretty well fatal at dead stop.
Obviously we did not choose the Standards, but were guided by MIRA. It was carried out according to what is dictated to them by ECE Regulation 17, at speeds specified in European Frontal Crashworthiness Directive 96/79/EC. We’ve slowed it down so that you can see what’s happening!
Obviously, crash test data is by its very nature extremely complex and needs a trained eye to interpret, but we will do now what we should have done from the start: post the MIRA Report Summary on our website.
Simply then, to avoid any further confusion: The test was carried out at 34mph, the European Standard (Ionics is at 30mph, the American Standard) it is on a HyGe sled, which means that it is static, on rails, but simulates a head-on collision. This is by means of an underground ram impacting directly upon the chassis, thus transmitting the full 30mph energy to the tankmount, rather than having to factor in the enormous range of shock-absorption introduced by various van crumple-zones! Unfortunately for the dramatic aspect, all that you appear to see is it travelling backwards!
But, by taking crumple-zones out of the equation, we are effectively testing the integrity of tank and mount at force levels which may occur in collisions of much greater speed!
The choice of the 650 Litre system seems logical, as it is far and away our best-seller, but has the same mounting structure as the 1000. We thought that this was most indicative of our range and would be best appreciated by the 1500+ users out there.
With regard to the baffles, the baffle orientation has nothing to do with the direction of travel of the vehicle. We fit our systems in either direction, according to van size and customer requirements. As our tanks are approximately twice as long as they are wide, the baffle is designed to halve the travel of water in the longest direction. The “sloshing” in the longer direction is what builds up dangerous impetus. Halving this distance, by use of a baffle, is what equals out the force in all directions.
As for retro-fit, we are always happy to advise anybody who contacts us, on the best way to fit and use a Brodex system.
Thank you, Alex, you seem to be the only one who understands the use of the HyGe sled, and who fully appreciates the importance of monocoque deformation during an impact. This was key to the success of our mounted system.
We are surprised and a little disappointed that our voluntary effort and investment in your safety has met with such scepticism. We had a resounding success with our crash testing, but we have not failed to learn and respond. Whilst we are confident that our systems are entirely safe, we have nevertheless noted all of the stress points and adjusted the mounting already, so that we will perform even better in the future.
Thank you for you continued interest and, if there is anything else you need to know, please feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Daniel
