Visiting Tongji – Part 3 & 4
Tour through the “Central Lab of Automotive College“
When visiting the labs I was surprised to see a group of about 10 Laoweis or perhaps a little more polite Weigoaren. Although being not too close they seemed to be Germans… Anyway, they were engaged in a converstation looking at VW cars and we had to follow our hosts. Asking our guide politly it turned out that the foreigners were visitors from BMW who were interested in fuel cell technology. I missed my chance…we did not happen to meet them again.
The lab itself was very impressive – engine testing, exhaust analysis, anechoic chamber, different vibration testing rigs, roller type test stand (including a robot to be placed in the car to shift the gears – I remember students being paid to sit in the car and shift the gears…) and so on. Somehow, I recognised a lot of German brands on the installed testing equipment. After the testing facilities we were brought to a fleet of test cars, including golf cart-type developments for the Shanghai Expo (batterie powered).
Viewing the Advanced Manufacturing teaching and research facilities
The second lab tour included the Advanced Manufacturing teaching and reasearch facilities. These labs were newly installed. The teaching facilities were very practical and very specific. The research facilities included a range of milling-, turning-, and grinding-machines and metrology equipment. According to our host many of these machines were provided to the University free of charge, in some cases the contact to industry was made through former students of Tongji.
