Ford sound labs

Nicknamed after the great scientists, the pair of ‘Aachen head’ sensor systems – a ball and a vaguely humanoid shape worth about $250,000 each – are key to research in the sound vision lab.  Bolted into their workstations, they’re putting in 16-hour days hunting down the source of undesirable squeaks, rattles and moans in prototype cars, and reporting them back to their minders.

When the sound hits the 31 microphones and 12 digital cameras inside the ball, the time lag is able to be measured and Pythagorean theory – basically triangulation – is used to identify where the noise ‘hotspots’.  The pair is not completely office-bound, and often get mounted in cars and taken for drives to keep refining the research on sound identification and suppression.

“A big piece of ‘great to drive’ is how the vehicle sounds,” says lab spokesman Mark Clapper, adding that a lot of work makes for a seemingly small improvement on paper.“Three per cent improvement in quietness is about three year’s progress,” he says.

The analytical simulator can mimic the sounds of particular engine ‘types’ – a European turbo, a luxury V6 – and compare them over different road surfaces, or jump from one drivetrain to another to allow the engineers to compare the effect. 

However, it’s not all about making cars quiet. It’s also about making them noisy in an enjoyable way.  “We combine exhaust and intake system to tune the pipes of the vehicle and include the wind and road noise for compatibility,” Clapper says.

And this lab also helps Ford decide where and how and at what pitch to direct the noise, with technology like the sound symposer that tunes up the music on the Focus ST and the diaphragm on the Mustang GT that feeds into the cabin just beside the steering wheel to help give the driver a blast. Literally.