E-TECH Testing Services, LLC (E-TECH)
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What We Do
E-TECH is a professional test laboratory offering services primarily to highway design engineers, safety engineers, maintenance engineers, researchers, hardware developers, and others concerned with safety features used in the highway environment.
MISSION
To provide quality laboratory testing services to customers.
E-TECH defines quality as "the features or characteristics of services that bear on the company’s ability to satisfy the needs of our customers."
In September 1995, E-TECH Testing Services, LLC (E-TECH) was formed as a corporation in Delaware and began doing business in Rocklin, California. The corporation offers professional test laboratory services primarily to highway design engineers, safety engineers, maintenance engineers, researchers, hardware developers, and others concerned with safety features used in the highway environment. E-TECH is part of Valtir, LLC, the world’s leading manufacturers of energy-absorbing highway crash cushions, truck-mounted impact attenuators, flexible post delineators and other highway safety products and services. E-TECH is staffed with personnel having diverse backgrounds of experience in testing and evaluation of highway safety hardware and materials.
Above and Beyond
We place particular emphasis on meeting or exceeding the expectations of customers by:
Quality Standards
Maintaining a quality system in compliance with ISO 9001 and ISO 17025, the general requirements for the competence of testing laboratories, and satisfying the needs of the regulatory authorities or organizations providing this recognition.
Professional Testing Services
Providing professional testing services that both comply with nationally and internationally recognized procedures/standards and meet the needs of our clients.
Accurate & On-Time
Completing testing services and accurate documentation on-time.
Continuous Improvement
Continuously improving our testing services and the effectiveness of the quality management system by involving our employees and customers in problem solving and quality improvements.
Request Information
For inquiries, complete the form below, and one of our knowledgeable experts will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
Services
E-TECH specializes in the analysis, testing, and evaluation of highway safety features such as longitudinal barriers, terminals and crash cushions, support structures, work zone traffic control devices, truck mounted attenuators, and break-away poles. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recognizes E-TECH as an accredited crash test laboratory. E-TECH has tested and certified over eighty new products that the FHWA has accepted for use on the National Highway System.
E-TECH is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 “General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories” by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA Certificate 989.01). E-TECH was the first domestic crash test laboratory to operate a quality system compliant with 17025 and the relevant requirements of the ISO 9000 series of standards. Verification of E-TECH’s A2LA Accreditation is available at http://www.a2la.org/.
A2LA has a bilateral mutual recognition agreement with the European cooperation for Accreditation. The Agreement is expected to facilitate the acceptance of E-TECH’s test and calibration data with a number of European countries whose national accreditation bodies have signed the EA Multilateral Agreement (MLA). EA promotes the recognition and acceptance in all the MLA countries of certificates and reports issued by organizations accredited by national accreditation bodies who have signed the MLA. A listing of A2LA’s mutual recognition agreement partners is available at A2LA’s Mutual Recognition Agreement Partners.
E-TECH conducts full scale crash testing to the recognized MASH, NCHRP 350, EN 1317 and AS / NZS 3845 national and international test standards as well as many other client supplied test specifications.
E-TECH utilizes state of the art test instrumentation, data collection, and data processing equipment. A prerequisite to A2LA’s ISO 17025 accreditation is that E-TECH have in place the facilities, equipment, environment, training, personnel, and experience necessary for the proper and timely completion of testing. All of E-TECH’s test measurements are directly traceable to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
The links on this page provide more information on the range of services E-TECH offers. Please contact the laboratory manager if more detailed information is required or there is need for a test that may require methods, equipment, or facilities not highlighted at this web site.
Full scale vehicle impact testing to national, international, and client supplied test specifications.
Each year, approximately 40,000 fatalities and 3 million serious injuries are caused in the United States due to vehicle collisions with other cars and trucks, as well as roadside hazards. Effective highway safety hardware such as barrier systems, end treatments, crash cushions, breakaway devices, truck-mounted attenuators, and work zone safety devices are used to help mitigate roadway fatalities and injuries. Full scale impact testing has been, and will continue to be, the most common method of evaluating the safety performance of highway hardware.
Test procedures for full scale crash testing have been established to ensure uniformity in the procedures and criteria used to evaluate roadside safety features. The United States Federal Highway Administration has adopted the test procedures given in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials “Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH)”. Whereas the majority of the members of the European Union have adopted the test procedures given in European Standard EN 1317 “Road Restraint Systems” and Australia and New Zealand the procedures in AS/NZS 3845 “Road Safety Barrier Systems.”
E-TECH has conducted crash testing compliant with MASH, EN 1317, and AS/NZS 3845 test procedures on virtually all major categories of highway safety hardware. Regardless of the device type, or the test procedure selected, E-TECH follows a proven systematic approach to help ensure the successful completion of crash test programs and to protect the confidentiality of the client’s information. A key element of this approach is establishing and maintaining a traceable link between the test article as delivered and installed, and the documented final results of the test program.
- Test vehicle purchase, preparation, and disposal
- Pre and post-test vehicle inertial property measurements
- Customized test facility improvements
- Test article installation, inspection, and verification
- Head on, offset, angled, and side impact test capabilities
- On-site kinetic energies to 1000 kJ (738 ft-kip), higher energies by special arrangement
- Six-degrees-of-freedom vehicle kinematics measurements
- State-of-the-art fully redundant multi-channel on-board data acquisition systems
- Quick turnaround data processing and analysis
- High speed color video and analysis capability
- Non-linear digital video editing
Experimental design, data analysis, consulting, reporting, documentation, and more.
E-TECH has the capability to conduct custom testing, simulation, and evaluation for not only highway safety researchers but those involved in the legal, investigative, insurance, and manufacturing professions as well. Specialized test facilities can be designed and produced to replicate and tightly control unique test environments. E-TECH can provide support for a variety of crashworthiness and structural integrity test programs including:
- Vehicle procurement and preparation
- Data acquisition and analysis
- High speed color digital video and 16mm film photography
- Digital real time video and still photography
- Technical report preparation and printing
Facilities
E-TECH's Rocklin test facility is located at 3617B Cincinnati Avenue, Rocklin, California.
The test facility includes a 800 sq. ft. office, 1350 sq. ft. shop, 1000 sq. ft. materials test laboratory, and a 4 acre full-scale outdoor crash testing area. The crash testing area features two 1500 ft. long by 20 ft. wide asphalt lanes with independent test pads at each end. Test pad foundations are available in soil, sand, compacted subbase, asphalt, and concrete. E-TECH also operates a nearby Lincoln test facility located at 1420 Flight Line Drive, Lincoln, California. This facility is often used on crash test programs requiring substantial facility improvements and/or a wide-open area for posttest vehicle trajectory. The Lincoln test facility is situated on an abandoned airport runway and features a 12 acre full scale crash testing area. Available test pad foundations are similar to those at the Rocklin facility.
Primary laboratory standards are maintained for mass, acceleration, force, time, length, temperature, hardness, and angular rate measurements. E-TECH utilizes state-of-the-art laboratory and test equipment, including:
- Solid state triaxial accelerometers and rate transducers
- Advance technology high speed digital video analysis equipment
- High speed multi-channel remote and on-board digital data acquisition systems
- Complex digital signal analysis software
A complete itemization of the laboratory equipment currently in place is not provided here. However, a prerequisite to A2LA’s ISO 17025 accreditation is that E-TECH have in place the facilities, equipment, environment, training, personnel, and experience necessary for the proper and timely completion of testing. All of E-TECH’s test measurements are directly traceable to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
