In this episode, Nick speaks with ACE – Climatic Aerodynamic Wind Tunnel (ACE)’s Executive Director, John Komar and ACE’s Project Manager for Project Arrow, Paula Ambra, about the facility’s testing capabilities. ACE, which is located at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, is one of the most sophisticated of its kind in the world. John is quick to remind everyone that the facility is “…so much more than just a wind tunnel.” It is designed to provide a multitude of industries with world-class and independent testing capabilities to validate prototype products under a wide range of climatic conditions.
The next generation of vehicles will require advanced testing, and this is what the $120,000,000 unique test facility at ACE was designed for. It offers a climatic wind tunnel, a large and a small climatic chamber, a climatic four-post shaker and a hemi-anechoic chamber with a multi-axis shake table.
What’s most compelling about ACE is that this kind of testing – once only available to companies who could afford to build their own facility – is now available to any company by the hour. Allowing all companies access to this level of testing opens new doors for innovation in Ontario’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem and automobility sector.