Automobile
Capture crash events, occupant protection systems, component motion, combustion, sprays, tire behavior, structural deformation, and aerodynamic flow with high-speed imaging systems designed for automotive testing.
High-Speed Imaging for Safer, Better Vehicles
Automotive engineers use high-speed cameras to understand events that happen in milliseconds, including crashes, airbag deployment, structural deformation, fuel injection, tire contact, suspension movement, and aerodynamic flow.
Photron systems can be configured for onboard, offboard, laboratory, proving-ground, powertrain, sled, component, and full-vehicle testing.
Applications and Techniques
Photron high-speed cameras support direct visualization and quantitative measurement throughout vehicle development and safety validation.
Corrélation d'images numériques
Measure two-dimensional or three-dimensional deformation, displacement, vibration, and strain in vehicle structures and materials.
Explore DIC →Combustion Imaging
Study ignition, flame propagation, fuel sprays, mixture formation, soot generation, and cycle-to-cycle combustion variation.
Explore Combustion →Essais des matériaux
Capture fracture, deformation, impact, crushing, delamination, yielding, and failure in metals, polymers, glass, and composites.
Explore Materials Testing →Dynamique des fluides
Visualize airflow, cooling, sprays, droplets, wakes, underbody flow, cabin ventilation, and liquid or gas movement.
Explore Fluid Dynamics →Crash and Safety Testing
Record vehicle impact, dummy motion, restraint performance, deformation zones, intrusion, and component interaction.
Discuss crash testing →Component Motion Analysis
Track suspension, tires, brakes, steering, rotating components, vibration, deployment, and mechanical interactions.
Discuss your application →Automotive Test Applications
High-speed imaging supports complete vehicle, subsystem, component, powertrain, and aerodynamic development.
Crash Testing
Capture frontal, side, rear, rollover, pole, barrier, sled, and component impacts from onboard and offboard views.
Airbags and Restraints
Analyze airbag deployment, seatbelt loading, pretensioners, dummy interaction, side curtains, and occupant kinematics.
Onboard Imaging
Place rugged compact cameras inside doors, dashboards, wheel wells, cabins, engine bays, and other restricted locations.
Powertrain and Combustion
Study fuel injection, spray-wall interaction, ignition, combustion, valve motion, exhaust flow, and thermal behavior.
Tires, Wheels and Suspension
Measure tire deformation, contact-patch behavior, tread movement, wheel motion, suspension travel, and brake dynamics.
Aerodynamics and Cooling
Visualize external airflow, underbody flow, wakes, cooling paths, HVAC performance, sprays, and water management.
Onboard and Offboard Camera Systems
Automotive testing often requires a combination of compact rugged cameras inside the vehicle and higher-resolution systems positioned around the test area.
Compact Multi-Head Systems
Miniature remote camera heads provide multiple viewing angles in locations where space, weight, and cable routing are severely limited.
- Multiple synchronized camera heads
- Installation in confined test locations
- Rugged construction for crash environments
- Automated image transfer after the test
- Backup triggering and recorded waveform data
High-Resolution Stand-Alone Cameras
Offboard systems capture complete vehicle motion, deformation, occupant behavior, and component interaction from fixed external viewpoints.
- Wide and detailed crash-test views
- Flexible resolution and frame-rate settings
- Long lenses and remote operation
- Multi-camera synchronization
- Integration with lighting and facility timing
Planning an Automotive High-Speed Test
Successful automotive imaging depends on clearly defining the event, camera locations, expected motion, lighting, triggering, protection, and data-recovery workflow.
Featured Automotive Testing and Research
Examples retained from Photron’s existing Automotive page.
Euro NCAP et Applus+ IDIADA
Euro NCAP and Applus+ IDIADA use high-speed imaging across a broad range of crash and vehicle-safety tests, including onboard applications requiring multiple miniature camera views.
Explore Euro NCAP →Infrared Imaging of Diesel Combustion
Two-dimensional infrared imaging at multiple wavelengths has been used to characterize cycle-to-cycle variation and investigate combustion processes directly inside diesel engines.
Gasoline Spray and Wall Interaction
High-speed optical diagnostics have been used to study multi-hole gasoline direct-injection sprays, piston-temperature effects, fuel wall films, evaporation, and soot-forming conditions.
Selecting a Camera for Automotive Testing
The best system depends on the test type, onboard space, impact severity, required resolution, frame rate, light level, image duration, camera count, and data-transfer requirements.
Planning an automotive high-speed imaging system?
Share your test type, vehicle speed, camera positions, frame rate, resolution, impact rating, lighting, and camera-count requirements with Photron.