Continuing just-auto’s series of interviews at the 2015 IAA show, Matthew Beecham met with Geoffroy de Grandmaison, Marketing Director, Faurecia to learn more about the tier one supplier’s seating innovations, including its so-called Lightweight & Roominess and Active Wellness concepts. The latter can detect a driver’s drowsiness or stress and take countermeasures – such as a very specific seat massage pattern – to relieve those conditions.
Could you tell us about some of the technologies that Faurecia is highlighting this year here at the IAA and your message?
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Our message is that we have developed successful products and want to be a technology leader in lightweight. We have introduced a new concept seat called Lightweight & Roominess. This seat features our short term proposals to improve lightweight and roominess. We have selected as a reference the driver seat of a Nissan Rogue (SOP 2013). The complete seat is a six way manual seat, mid height point, that weighs 18 kg, which is a best-in-class performance. It features our CMF1 frame, which weighs just 12 kg, which is a 20 percent improvement compared to the previous generation. It features our own acclaimed mechanisms and mechatronics. We have been able to achieve weight reduction while complying with the most stringent safety regulations. The frame is produced on our generic lines installed across the world which allow producing specific frames for different automakers on the same line. Our motto is: your frame, our process to highlight the benefit of standardisation.
We have shown a CMF front seat product structure – which is a Renault Nissan product – we will have equipped 21 million cars for Renault Nissan by 2021. Currently, Faurecia CMF seat frames can be found on-board the Nissan Qashqai, Rogue, X-Trail as well as Renault Espace, Mégane and Talisman.
How have you achieved that lighter weight seat?
We have selected 10 off-the-rack and readily available technology bricks. It ends up with a 2.3 kg lighter complete seat. All those lightweight technologies are below 2€/kg. On the metal parts, we save 1.6 kg: 600 grams thanks to thinner side-members and risers using high performance steel grades. We save 700 grams on mechanisms with our new Modul-T track and optimised sectors and spacers. Side-members are thinner thanks to high performance steel grades (DP 1200 and DP1000). Using glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics on the cushion front cross member and on the handle bar brings 300 grs. Foam pads are made of a premium foam formula that allows reducing the density at same comfort performance, which enables saving 300 grs. We took out the plastic molded backrest and replaced it with a sculpted, light back panel, and we gained 300 gr. Last but not least, the sculpted light panel allows having a concave shape; a rear occupant can enjoy three centimetres more leg roominess. We did not compromise on comfort and styling.
Our conviction is that the market expects aggressive kaizen solutions. That is to say high strength steel with carbon fibre thermal plastics reinforced with carbon fibre. This is what the market is ready to pay now.
Those materials have to be recycled too?
We believe that there is still room for improvement with traditional and some advanced steel grades in terms of recyclability. In the short term, we will mostly use steel alloys that are easy to recycle.
In what ways do you expect your venture with Dongfeng Hongtai to enhance your seating business?
The joint venture in China is the name of the game to establish a strong position but our intention is that a second phase of this venture will include automotive seating. So it is a long term agreement.
To what extent is Faurecia using ‘green’ (bio-based) materials in car seats?
Although not a bio-product, we have developed a TDI foam which emits 20 times fewer volatile organic compounds than traditional TDI foams. Faurecia has developed a new type of TDI foam pad for vehicle seats that eliminates 99 percent of volatile amines emissions which concur to a reduction of global VOC emissions by 60 percent, while improving seating comfort, a breakthrough solution in the current automotive seating industry.
Faurecia submitted its new foams to an independent lab for testing, where results demonstrated that the new material’s composition eliminated as much as 99 percent of volatile amines emissions, compared with previous TDI pads. The Faurecia low-VOC TDI foam pads thus become the world’s first to achieve a nearly total elimination of volatile amines emissions.
Our volatile amines-free TDI foam pad is the first of its kind, eliminating external catalysts and their emissions from the production process while improving mechanical properties of the seat. This breakthrough material which we have created in cooperation with Dow further demonstrates Faurecia’s standing as a full-service technology provider, developing materials, components and systems to improve vehicles and their environmental footprint.
Faurecia has started producing its volatile amines-free TDI foam pad in Magny-Vernois, France. Faurecia anticipates that the new foam will help automakers meet impending restrictions on global VOC emissions in Asia: in particular in China, Japan and South Korea as well as help to forestall interior emissions in vehicles all across the globe.
It is currently in series production for German and French premium carmakers. This is a breakthrough in this industry.
In terms of seat trends, what do you see happening with decorative surface materials? Also, what is Faurecia proposing to gain space in the vehicle cabin?
Yes, decoration is very important. Carmakers understand that they need to put more value into the interior so they view the seat, especially the part of the seat that is most visible from the outside, to configure their own seats. To serve this purpose, we have developed a proprietary technology called Cover Carving Technology which can be applied to seat covers as well as to seat backs.
Faurecia has developed an innovative light sculpted panel using Cover Carving Technology (CCT) for the front-seat backs of the new Renault Talisman Sedan and Estate. This Faurecia-patented CCT technology has enabled to offer three centimetres of extra knee room for rear passengers.
In a world first in the D-segment, in series production for the front seat backs of Renault Talisman, the sculpted light panels take the form of a semi-rigid, resistant, flexible and lightweight shell. This Faurecia innovation provides automaker designers with additional freedom, adds to the impression of quality, frees up space and weighs 1kg less per row than conventional plastic seat back shells. The technology also offers premium fit and finish versus traditional soft and rigid solutions.
The highly repeatable manufacturing process requires 80 percent less tooling cost versus a traditional plastic back panel. It enables both concave and convex embossing shapes, marking and sewing lines. The panel is sewed directly onto the seat cover, with no fixation on the seat frame, allowing for a very flexible application. The CCT sculpted light panel works in close synergy with the Faurecia CMF seat frame as it tightly adheres to the backrest shape to offer a maximum space gain.
Engineered and developed at Faurecia’s Automotive Seating TechCenter in Magny-Vernois (France), and manufactured on the first European dedicated production line at Faurecia’s São João da Madeira plant (Portugal), the technology is readily available for automakers to deploy in their upcoming vehicles.
There is a lot of talk these days about the autonomous car and the future of driving. How will that impact the driver’s seat and rest of the car’s seats?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE vehicle seating research service
