JCI Labs Spark Innovation

JCI Labs Spark Innovation

Improving the customer experience through research and development

When you think of laboratories, images of scientists hunkered over chemistry vials come to mind. But at Johnson Controls, researchers are exploring and discovering a wide variety of ways to make the automotive experience safer and more pleasurable for drivers.
In addition to its WAVE lab, covered in “Beyond Bunsen Burners”, JCI engages in ongoing research and development in the following U.S.-based labs:

Human Factors Studio: Here, Johnson Controls puts the science of ergonomics through its paces. Seating, electronics and interior components are tested based on ease-of-reach, usability and function, taking into consideration the ergonomic positioning of the component and various types of human bodies.

ComfortLab: Researchers and scientists at this Plymouth, Mich., lab tackle the end-users’ need for cruising comfort through a virtual driving experience. The lab takes vehicle passengers on a “road trip” via a simulator that offers a wraparound projection system and a six-axis shaker table that generates the bumps, dips and turns of an open-road drive. While all this is going on, researchers can monitor and record the passengers’ experience, using the culled information to develop more comfortable components.
Expanding its focus, the ComfortLab also uses the simulator to test the company’s hands-free telematics systems. Its controlled environment enables researchers to test for such factors as lane deviation and the number of seconds a driver’s eyes are off the road. So, while the lab may have been built for comfort, it’s pulling double duty regarding safety.
Plus, this lab offers modeling software to analyze prototype designs before production, a motion analysis system that tracks occupant movement in a vehicle, pressure mapping technology that allows researchers to quantifiably measure back support during “real world” car rides and electronic mannequins to replicate the movement of human bodies in vehicles.

Radio Frequency Test Facility: Here, Johnson Controls’ HomeLink® systems—the ones that allow you one-button convenience in opening garage doors and turning on home lights—undergo range testing. This Federal Communications Commission-certified site allows Johnson Controls personnel to provide repeatable conditions for devices. As a bonus, it also allows Johnson Controls’ automaker customers to test their hush-hush concept cars and newly designed offerings in anonymity—keeping the top secret, top-secret.

Advanced Materials and Process Engineering (AMPE) Lab: In keeping with its quest to provide customers with the latest technology, JCI researchers at this Holland, Mich.-based lab develop ways to enhance materials for vehicle interiors. It’s a veritable CSI lab for the automotive industry, with high-tech analysis tools such as stereo microscopy, thermogravimetric analyzers, metallographs, dynamic mechanical analyzers and infrared spectroscopes. All this high-tech wizardry is used to create new materials, new technology and new techniques that benefit both the assembly process and the end product.

Why all the focus on one-of-its-kind testing and lab work? To keep Johnson Controls at the leading edge of processes and technology. That, in turn, benefits its customers—and drivers.