LOOK WHO'S TALKING: Sverdrup's Robert Norfleet

Automotive Industries,  July, 1999  by Marjorie Sorge

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Technology used in space exploration and war will change the auto industry, predicts this testing expert.

Bob Norfleet was an Air Force kid who grew up hanging around an engineer dad, reading Boys Life and imagining the world of tomorrow Today, as vice president of testing company Sverdrup Technology, he does pretty much the same thing -- except, now he's the engineer and what he poured over in that Boy Scout magazine is part of his everyday life.

Sverdrup does a lot of testing for the auto industry, but it also has strong ties to the military, NASA and aerospace. That link, says Norfleet, is a catalyst for transferring technologies from those industries to automotive. Automakers and suppliers are already benchmarking NASA and Air Force testing facilities. Other technologies are sure to follow, he says.

Q. What technologies will transfer from the military, NASA and aerospace?

A. As we move from road to air to space there will be many synergies. Satellite communication is the key to rendering someone helpless. Missile tracking, guidance systems and GPS have traditionally been used as weapons of defense. You take these things out (destroy them) with electromagnetic pulses, not projectiles, so the sensors must be shielded. A lot of sensor shielding research in the space program will roll into the auto industry as it grows more dependent on electronics.

In space, things must continue to function in vacuum, in zero atmosphere. Sensors are strapped to a rocket with hundreds of thousands of pounds of thrust that vibrates and swings through temperatures. The government uses huge capacitors to test how these sensors react. For a matter of nanoseconds they're hit with energy equal to probably one-half of all the generated capability of the U.S. Automotive doesn't need to test in that magnitude -- but if you have a sensor that can do that, it's pretty certain you are not going to get that light on your dash that says, "Needs Service Soon."

Q. What about guidance systems?

A. Guidance-systems weapons figure out where they are based on the terrain and make adjustments for wind, temperature and air density. If you can deliver something like that that flies through the air, what would keep you from using the technology for something driving on the ground?

Q. What other technologies will we see?

A. Laser measurement technologies have a chance. We worked with NASA on a laser device that measures the ozone, but it has to travel about a mile through the air to do it. We put a sensor, about the size of a postage stamp, between the engine mount and the fuselage on a NASA jet. The laser is fired through a set of reflecting mirrors back and forth until it travels about a mile. Then the sensor picks it up. The same thing could also be used to measure emissions from a car going down the road.

Pressure-sensitive paint is another thing. It's applied to the fuselage and wings so we can see where pressure builds up. A color pattern develops for a range of pressures. One of the ways you get emissions down is to create more efficient aerodynamic shapes, so this could be used to test vehicles. And it's not super expensive.

Q. What do you predict the auto industry will be like in 2020?

A. There will be fuel cells and cars may be able to hover, not fly. I'm not sure why you would need wheels, but drivers need lines. So maybe there is a virtual highway on your in-vehicle screen And you'll fly by wire.

If you told me 10 years ago that my four-year-old could log onto the Internet and look at the Library of Congress while sitting in my house I wouldn't have believed, it. So I am reluctant to look at 2020 and not imagine we will not make some quantum leap. So, if I were an asphalt paving company or a tire company ...

COPYRIGHT 1999 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group