The Blog of Peg Perego » testing

Testing: trying the wheels

Administrator — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 06:29:59 +0000

It isn’t rocket science - wheels are crucial in many of our products. Regardless of whether we are talking about a toy vehicle or a stroller, wheels are essential elements. That is why it is important that we test them for safety and for wear.

To perform the test, out testing department has a special machine.

The detail of this caption provides a good explanation on what the test consists in – the wheels are loaded with weights that depend on the kind of vehicle and use and rolled 200 km over various kinds of surfaces, moving and braking. Worn tire treads are acceptable, but not broken wheels.

Here is how it works.

All data is written on a sheet that contains the results of the tests.

At the end of the test the wheels are changed and another test is started… As you can imagine there is no shortage of materials to test!

Testing: Rolling road test

Administrator — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 06:45:03 +0000

The Rolling road test is required by the law. We have a special machine for this kind of test in the Peg Perego testing department.

Like all other machines, it has a notice explaining how it works and the properties checked during this test.

The product - in this case a stroller – is "loaded” with weights corresponding to the passenger (15 kg) and a bag (5 kg) in the carrier basket and then put on the modified conveyor belt with obstacles. After about 38,000 cycles, members of the staff check the stroller is not broken in any way and no part has come loose after the long run and stress.

Here is a short video to help you understand exactly what happens.

All your daily obstacles are here, in a very long (about 200 km!) ‘walk’, to check that the product deserves our “It’s obviously worth it!"

Testing: the cold storage unit

Administrator — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:50:49 +0000

What happens if one of our products is left in a container or in a warehouse? Is the packaging altered? Does our product resist? To find out, our products undergo the ‘conditioning test’, which includes storage in a refrigeration unit.

Are you curious and would like to know the details? Here you go – the notice says that a refrigerator and a freezer are used to perform dynamic tests and transport tests simulating the most severe weather conditions (the mechanical properties of plastic are altered at low temperatures).

Now do you understand how important this test is? The mechanical properties of plastic are altered at low temperatures so it is crucial for us to have somewhere to test what could happen to our products when they are exposed to extreme conditions - because safety is no laughing matter.

Testing: transport

Administrator — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:38:50 +0000

Here is a load of car seats! Have you ever thought about it? We carry out tests to check the resistance of packaging to compression, collisions etc. In what condition will our load of items arrive?

A machine reproduces the “battering” that our packages are subject to when we deliver them to destinations in Italy and around the world. In this way we can check the conditions of our boxes when they “arrive" and make any changes we need to make.

Here is our machine at work.

Falls are simulated by an operator dropping the item, which falls for 90 centimeters before hitting the ground at different angles. In this way we can check what happens to the boxes or products if they fall out of a lorry during transport or if they are dropped while they are being unloaded.

The information we collect is then used to improve the way our products are packaged. It’s obviously worth it, isn’t it?