Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

How does Ford measure its interiors? Ping pong *****.

A ping-pong ball has a volume of about 2 cubic inches, and a 2013 Ford Escape holds nearly 60,000. Why is this important? Ford uses the ***** to measure vehicle interior capacity for both its own cars and competitors'. Of course, there are traditional measuring tools that you'd expect Ford engineers and designers to use, but it's been hard to do anything but estimate the amount of space in oddly-shaped locations like glove compartments and door pockets.

Ford says ping-pong ***** deliver better accuracy than more tedious measurement techniques, and its engineers have also figured out how to measure the volume of the space between *****. So while an image like the one you see above might initially look like the work of pranksters, it's just Ford's engineers getting better measuremenents than ever before.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/07/21/h...ng-pong-*****/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

pretty neat!!

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

how do they fill a car with ping pong *****? i imagine for an suv you hang it by the rear axle, and pour ping pong ***** in the back door? or maybe through the sun roof.

RXSF

I cant see just pouring ***** in to be very accurate, they probably have to be placed one by one because then you could get huge spaces between ***** if they are just randomly put together.

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

I have always wondered how they measure engine sizes, do they drop them into a giant tub and measure how much water comes out?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

lol that's much easier since it's designed and is basically the sum of the cylinder sizes, easy to calc.

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

Creative idea, btw, the Escape just finished top on a CUV comparo in this month's MT ( against CRV, CX5, Tiguan, and Kia ). Props to Ford came out with an excellent product.

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

Very interesting way of measuring the interior!

I'm wondering too how they fill the interior with them, one by one or via some sort of machine..... lol

jadu

iTrader: (42)

i guess the ME's doin the solidworks/CAD/whatever can't add up the volume? i guess if they're comparing the designed volume vs. the actual production assemblys, which should be the same.

DunWkg

Would someone explain to me if this is relevant to the consumer? Ping-pong ***** do not fit in all the nooks and crannies, so where is the accuracy?

This sounds like a commercial for the consumer. This car holds 10,000 ping-pong ***** and this car holds 11,000 ping-pong *****. If priced the same, this car is a better value.

Employers will often have employees injured on the job return to work as soon as possible performing "light duty" rather than the job the employee regularly performs but can't because of the injury. Placing ping-pong ***** in a car sounds like light duty work.

RX_330

Of course Ford has the exact measurements of their vehicles. I'm pretty sure this is a way to get the volumes of their competitor vehicles and be able to do an accurate/standardized comparison.

Blackraven

Hmm yeah. Water displacement method (using principles of fluid mechanics)

RXSF

you mean the Escape that has been recalled twice since its introduction in May?

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

Already? That sucks.

JessePS

They should have used mountains of pennies lol