How The 2015 Ford F-150 Protects Drivers From The Sun

September 17, 2014 1:45 pm

With the new 2015 Ford F-150, the engineering team looked at everything as an area of improvement. This included the damaging effects from the sun. Using state of the art facilities, the automaker has developed the 2015 Ford F-150 to be the most sun repellent truck ever. Here’s how.

First up was working on the problems associated with long-term sun damage for the 2015 Ford F-150. All car owners know how damaging the sun can be over time. The relentless sunshine causes vehicles to fade and lose value. Ford took this damage seriously. Working in their Central Lab they used a Thermatron to simulate damaging UV sunrays. They focused on individual prototype parts and their resiliency to fading. Through this process, engineers were able to identify the best parts and design for production for the 2015 Ford F-150.

Also, the badge and various parts of the 2015 Ford F-150 were tested see how long they would last. With a resilency goal of 5 years, they tested all of their components with massive amounts of sunlight and temperatures as cold as 40 degree below followed by blasts of 100-degree steam.

Next up was antiglare testing. Again, every driver is aware of the problems with glare at different times at the day. Ford spent hours replicating this glare and chose materials/design that minimized its impact on visibility for the 2015 Ford F-150.

Hours were also spent working on the glare’s impact on the instrument panel inside the 2015 Ford F-150. With the new touchscreens and multi-function displays, a simple ray of sunlight glare can render these screens inoperable. Working on placement, supplemental lighting and materials, this problem has been apparently nixed in the 2015 Ford F-150.

If this all sounds pretty technical, it is because it is. We had the great opportunity to visit this lab in June and we can tell you, it is akin to walking around with beakers and lab coats. The extremely dark facility lets in no natural sunlight that we could discern. Engineers then use instruments like the Thermatron to simulate sun rays and narrow down exactly where/how the sunlight impacts the vehicle and driver. It may seem like a lot of energy spent on a trivial matter, but this factor may help set the 2015 Ford F-150 apart from the competition.

By Tim Esterdahl

Tim is a married father of three living in Western Nebraska. He spends a lot of time reading, writing and talking cars/trucks with fans, insiders and manufacture reps. When he isn't talking about cars, he is usually out playing golf - a never ending obsession to see how far the little white ball will fly.