GM assembly plants use a variety of specialized processes and tools to ensure the quality of the vehicles coming out of its assembly plants meets or exceeds its standards. In the past, we’ve told you that these include high-tech precision robots, ostrich feathers in the paint shop, and the gap stick to measure body panel tolerances. Today, we’ll tell you about a tool called the Door Velocity Meter, which is used to ensure that just the right amount of force is needed to open and close the doors of a vehicle.
Door Velocity Meter in action on the tenth-generation Chevy Impala at the GM Detroit-Hamtramck plant
Designed and patented by General Motors, the velocity meter is used after panel fit and flushness levels have been achieved. The high-tech tool attaches to the body of a vehicle using magnets, and calculates the door closing effort.
The device is placed on the rear quarter panel to test the force needed to close the rear doors, and on the rear doors in order to test the force needed to close the front doors. Once the meter is set up, the doors are opened and closed numerous times to generate an accurate reading.
The recorded result must meet a required velocity that translates to force (effort). If it doesn’t, then the door mechanisms (and potentially the alignment) are recalibrated, and the test is performed once again, so as to meet the GM’s quality standards. So, there’s one more way in which GM ensures that the doors on its vehicles open and close with not too little and not too much force.
Comments
Smart! Someone was definitely thinking when they came up with that. It’s definitely noticeable. The door closing effort on GM’s cars has been quite good over the last 10 years or so. You can reliably and predictably shut the doors without much effort—no need to slam or re-open and close again. I’m sure this system, along with good engineering, has something to do with that.
I’d still like to see power pull-closed doors on Buicks and Cadillacs, along with door hinges that keep the door open no matter what position they’re opened to (not just the two-position ones like GM uses now).
Doesn’t seem to work on my 2019 Volt Premier. At least 3 of my doors are harder to close than on my 2017, and I have not checked the 4th. It is not hard to close the doors, just requires more effort and attention.