On August 9, 10 and 11, Testing Expo China 2023 – Automotive welcomed more than 330 exhibitors, 30+ speakers and over 12,900 visitors to the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, to help transform and upgrade China’s automotive industry.
The hall was full of cutting-edge test, development, validation and calibration technologies on display and excitement for a return to in-person events after a few years’ absence. The atmosphere was one of celebration, as engineers gathered to discuss the challenges they face and source technologies to accelerate vehicle development and validation; save costs; enhance product quality, durability, reliability and safety; and eliminate recalls.

Leading suppliers were on hand to address visitors’ challenges, whether that was reducing emissions, improving energy conservation, material ageing, increasing test efficiency or developing new-energy vehicles for future mobility. Here is a glimpse of what visitors experienced and saw live at the show.

A leading supplier of automotive test systems, AB Dynamics showcased its next-generation pedestrian Soft Scooter 360 ADAS target. The Chinese market is experiencing significant growth in the motorcycle, moped and scooter segment, and is forecast to reach an estimated market size of 10,300,000 units in 2027. The Soft Scooter 360 addresses the need, and growing demand, to improve safety for scooter riders and other road users through thorough ADAS testing.

“As vehicles become more advanced, a rigorous approach to testing ADAS systems is imperative. At AB Dynamics, we’re committed to pushing the boundaries of realism in testing. We’re excited to showcase our latest innovations at the Auto Testing Expo in China,” said Dr Andrew Pick, business director, Track Test Systems at AB Dynamics.

LiangDao was in Shanghai to highlight its Data Solution for Perception Algorithm Training, which supports mass production driving development projects by assisting clients in testing, validating, evaluating and training smart driving perception capabilities quickly, as well as in using data to drive autonomous driving system capabilities effectively and economically. Dr.-Ing. Shengguang Lei, co-founder and CTO of LiangDao Intelligence, gave a speech on the Technology Presentation Stage ‘LiangDao Data Factory Solution, to Address Technical Challenges of Large-Scale Ground-Truth Data Production.’

EMC electrical performance testing technology for new energy vehicles and more was demonstrated by LinkAll. “Automotive Testing Expo China is a grand event of the automotive industry, we hope to let more industry users know about LinkAll and our solutions, and we also hope to make greater progress in cooperation with the event and our customers,” enthused LinkAll’s Victor Ma.

Chongqing CAERI showcased its 6-DOF Vibration Platform, a six-degree-of-freedom electro-hydraulic servo vibration platform. It can accurately simulate various actual vibration environments, such as structural fatigue and noise tests for vehicle components and subsystems. A CAERI engineer said, “The 6 DOF Vibration Platform is the latest achievement from CAERI Test Equipment in the field of high-precision vibration testing. It is dedicated to simulating a more realistic vibration environment, providing users with the support to develop safer and more reliable products.”

A TSN prototype system, as well as measurement, analysis and testing of TSN network systems using the TSN CoreSolution tool, was showcased by Polelink. The TSN prototype system plays a crucial role in TSN network design, development and testing processes.

A company representative said, “We are delighted to showcase our TSN prototype product at Testing Expo China – Automotive. Our solution aims to provide test engineers with a comprehensive set of analysis and testing tools specifically tailored for TSN networks. We cordially invite all test engineers and industry professionals to visit our booth and witness the potential of our TSN prototype firsthand.”

At this year’s expo, FORUM8 showcased its VR Design Studio UC-win/road software system – an interactive 3D real-time virtual reality simulation software with high flexibility and versatility that can also provide customized development services.

Zeer was in Shanghai to exhibit its full range of products for track testing, open road testing, simulation testing and functional safety testing, including the self-developed ASEva Data and Scenario Acquisition System. The ASEva system is the most complete data closed-loop overall solution in the industry. It has powerful data acquisition capability, which can collect multiple types of data of vehicles.

The China Automotive Technology & Research Centre (CATARC) showed software and hardware tools related to automotive performance development, both on the exhibition floor and the Technology Presentation Stage.

According to CATARC’s Ziqian Wu, the tools are mainly divided into four categories: intelligent interconnection, safety and reliability, user experience, and energy saving and low-carbon. “With the popularization of intelligent networked vehicle functions, the corresponding testing work is still immature, and it integrates a large number of discipline interactions, which is difficult to implement and has high development prospects and has gradually become an important part of automobile development and testing,” explained Wu, ahead of his presentation on Day 3. Commenting on the company’s presence at the expo, he said, “The exhibition is currently one of the largest automotive industry exhibitions in China and we are honored to participate in the exhibition. We hope to better promote our products.”

Stringo, a market leader in vehicle moving, introduced its new four-wheel mover at the show. Its chief marketing officer Sam Coleman said, “Automotive Testing Expo China is the world’s leading international exhibition showcasing all aspects of automotive testing, development and validation technology. Stringo can also supply the best service to the customers in these field.”

Tekscan Inc & MEMS Technology Corporation highlighted its CrossDrive TireScan system, a fully integrated solution capable of measuring large tire footprints at a high resolution. The intuitive, application specific graphing and image analysis software enables quantitative and qualitative analysis of the tire footprint.

Chroma ATE has been a key player in the electric vehicle (EV) industry for many years, with comprehensive test solutions for battery cells, battery modules, battery packs, battery management system (BMS), onboard chargers, DC converters, EVSE, wireless charging and electrical safety. It was at the show to highlight the launch of a renewable energy and energy storage system testing equipment. “Automotive Testing Expo China is one of the world’s leading exhibitions for automotive testing, R&D, technology verification and more,” said Chroma ATE marketing director Lynn Huang. “It’s one of the leading fairs for vehicle manufacturing, components, spare parts, system development, technology and services.”

Solar simulation systems for material ageing and emissions testing were on show by Hoenle. The company’s solar simulation systems simulate the spectrum of natural sunlight defined by CIE 20 – 80 of 270 – 3000 nm. Several standards have been established, such as DIN 75220 (Ageing Automobile Components), MIL-STD-810 (Environmental Test on Military Field), IEC 60068 (Basic environmental testing procedures), SC03-Test (EPA Motor Vehicle Emissions Test) etc.

New hydrogen energy loading equipment was highlighted by Ziwei Test. This new solution boasts liquid-driven pressurization, larger output flow rate, higher efficiency, longer sealing service life and is equipped with efficient cooling water jacket.

Liu Dong, trade commissioner at Shenyang Ziweiheng Testing Equipment said at the expo, “At present, hydrogen loading equipment has been used in hydrogen cylinder, hydrogen refuelling nozzle and hydrogen valve. Through long-term nitrogen and hydrogen verification, the market has responded well, and the company is continuously optimizing design and production processes to continuously improve product technical specifications and stability.”

Beijing Palmary Technology exhibited its HydrogenSensemass spectrometer, a single analyzer for all purity analysis in compliance with international standards.

New zero-emission cars equipped with a proton exchange membrane fuel cell are powered by hydrogen fuel. These fuel cells require a hydrogen quality that can be achieved using modern hydrogen purification technologies.

Using hydrogen that contains impurities can damage fuel cells after a short time; to counter this, guidelines for appropriate hydrogen purity have been laid out in international standards that HydrogenSensemass complies with.

A complete communication system for charging infrastructure applications, the TwinCAT 3 IoT OCPP combined with EtherCAT Terminal EL6761, was showcased by Beckhoff Automation.

The company has added the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) to the TwinCAT IoT product portfolio based on the WebSocket protocol which has recently been introduced for the IoT driver. OCPP standardizes the communication between charging stations for electric vehicles and the associated central management systems.

Automotive Ethernet solutions, LIN bus auto parts testing solutions and CAN/CAN FD solutions were presented by HongKe Technology. “HongKe’s Automotive Ethernet solutions is a set of solutions for establishing internal vehicle networks, high-speed data transmission and real-time communication,” explained Megan Tang, an events and marketing specialist at HongKe Technology.

“Technica switches, converters, lidar and other Ethernet control domains are used in the scheme, and TX and T1 are intertransformed to realize the fast exchange and processing of lidar data. ANDi software is used to send SOME/IP data and achieve remote access to vehicle diagnostic data. It is designed to meet the needs of high-speed, reliable and secure data transmission and system integration in the automotive field, and has high stability, and does not modify any data packets during the conversion process.”

Cao Zhi, from Siasun Robot & Automation Co, said, “This is my first time attending this exhibition, where my company is showing its automatic driving robot products. The exhibition attracts a lot of industry insiders and potential users; we have received a lot of affirmation and recognition. It has been a good opportunity to display our latest products. I have also learned about similar industry products and some of the latest technologies. Thank you to the organisers for providing a platform for us to display our products and connect with the most cutting-edge technologies and developments.

The China edition of the Automotive Testing Expo series was a resounding success and we look forward to welcoming our exhibitors and visitors once again next year on August 28, 29, 30 – save the dates in your diary!