Horton Inc has added a state-of-the-art cooling system simulator to the testing equipment at its Carmel IN facility. The simulator enables Horton to imitate real-world heat-producing conditions that engines encounter while precisely measuring the cooling capacity of fan designs. When fully operational in the second quarter of 2009, the expanded capabilities will allow Horton to test not only the performance of their fan drives and fans, but also of radiators and charge air intercoolers used on virtually all sizes of on- and off-highway vehicles and equipment.
The cooling system simulator can test fan and shroud airflow, radiator cooling, intercooler (turbocharger) cooling, entire vehicle airflow, and cooling performance. Resulting data allows Horton engineers to design and test fans and fan drives in the testing facility that are proven to deliver the required cooling needed for real-world conditions.
Horton's Indiana technical facility is also equipped to perform CFD (computational fluid dynamic) analysis. CFD analysis, combined with the cooling system simulator, provides a testing service that will be offered to augment Horton's customers' in-house design and testing capabilities.