How do you build a durability test rig for a walking pad?
Today I received our own test machine.
A durability test rig is a machine that walks on a walking pad so a human does not have to. A weighted wheel presses down on the walking surface and drives it, hour after hour, day after day, until something breaks or the target distance is reached. An external lab can run that test for you, and we do use one in Nuremberg. But lab time is booked in blocks and every question costs weeks.
With your own rig you can test an idea on a Tuesday.
Getting it into the room
I was only able to move it together with the truck driver, who was nice enough to make an exception for me. I think he had pitied me.
Apparently I was a bit naive thinking that this would fit into the room easily. Well, the door is quite narrow. So I had to disassemble the whole thing to get it through into the small room where I had originally planned to set it up.
Anyway, I made it work somehow.
It works
The test machine works. It is really nice actually.
Unfortunately I cannot leave it running for now, as two of the rubber feet fell off during transportation and the main switch broke.
The numbers
Without added weight the load is around 53 kg. With all the weight the manufacturer provided it is 112 kg. So I should get more weights at some point, because the Office Walker is rated to 150 kg and that is the number I want to test against.
Why this matters for what you end up buying
Most walking pads are never tested like this. A weight limit on a spec sheet is often a number the factory supplied rather than something a machine proved over thousands of kilometres.
The reason I wanted my own rig is simple. Every time we change a component, the question comes back: does this still hold up? A new bearing, a different slat cover, a thicker piece of wood. Each of those is a new test, and if every test means shipping a prototype to a lab and waiting, you either stop changing things or you stop testing them.
Neither is a good option for a machine you are meant to keep for years.
The rig turned out to have its own problems later, which is a story for another update. But having it here is what let us find them at all.
Update, 12 June 2026: ready to run
The replacement parts came in. It's now fully assembled and ready, so I should be able to start running the first real tests soon.
Update, 3 July 2026: the motor stalled
Speaking of the test rig: it gave us some trouble. When I ran it with even a little added weight, the motor stalled. It was simply too weak.
As it turned out, the company that built it hadn't really tested this configuration. Compared to an earlier model they had tested, they'd made a small change: larger but narrower tires. That reduced the torque at the belt, so it couldn't drive as much weight. With a load of just 60 kg or so, it already couldn't keep the belt moving.
The manufacturer sent a replacement motor, and Malik and I swapped it out together. That turned out to be much harder than expected, but we managed it (with a few scratches on our arms to show for it).
What the rig did next is in Why do walking pad belts fail?