Seat manufacturers must develop seats that are lighter, offer more space for occupants and incorporate environmentally friendly materials. Yet space creation inside the vehicle has become critical with the explosion of added content and features. Discerning tastes also mean consumers want more flexible living space within their cars. To find out how Magna Seating is meeting these demands, Matthew Beecham talked with three of the company’s top executives, namely Randy Koenigsknecht, VP Sales & Marketing, Jeff Lambert, VP Engineering and Global IT Services, Dino Nardicchio, Executive Director, Advanced Engineering and Consumer Interface Products.
The CAFÉ standards require automakers to nearly double fuel economy to 54.5 mpg by 2025, starting in 2017. This leads to pressure on the need to reduce weight of car seats. Could you tell us how your business is developing seats that help achieve this goal?
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Magna Seating analyses market segment information to identify future industry needs. Fuel economy, as an example, is a major priority for North American C and D segments. This equates to weight reduction and is a primary consideration in designing the product. Weight reduction is achieved through the use of efficient materials, part integration and creative engineering. Magna Seating designs seat components and systems that are sizable, scalable, flexible and adaptable, paramount to providing our customers and consumers with more for less.
Typically, seating suppliers work with multiple OEMs, each of whom has unique seat-structure architectures. Therefore, Magna has developed smart solutions that can be utilised across a wide range of seat configurations and vehicle segments. Flexibility and modularity are key elements to our design principles. For example, the Magna Seating i-DiSC recliner product line offers compact mechanisms that are compatible with a variety of seat architectures and market segments. We also make efficient use of advanced high-strength steels for seat structures, recliners and mechanisms.
The Magna Seating family of compact mechanisms is also a key enabler for thin profile seating. The thin profile seat increases rear seat leg room without sacrificing comfort. The increased leg room provides the potential for the OEM to reduce overall cabin length with substantial weight savings.
Although weight reduction is crucial if the auto industry is to meet the CAFÉ standards, is there a negative perception of thin seats amongst consumers? How can you make seats thinner yet maintain seat integrity?
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By GlobalDataConsumers will accept thin seats as long as comfort is not jeopardised.
Magna’s Futureform design has been proven to be more comfortable than the traditional seat according to our market research, yet it is 75mm thinner. Smaller mechanisms and efficient seat structure design are enablers to meeting performance requirements while providing a comfortable seat.
Magna’s Futureform thin seat technology, with its unique structure and suspension design, enables a thin profile and enhanced rear occupant space. Magna consumer research shows that Futureform is preferred over conventional seating, especially by rear occupants. Improved leg and knee room for rear seat occupants, improved cabin spaciousness, and a better comfort rating than conventional seats enables alternative styling themes and the potential to reduce overall vehicle length without compromising occupant space, which in turn leads to significant vehicle mass reduction. Magna’s Futureform seat complete mass is 17.8 kg (4 way), with seat back thickness of 65mm at the centre line and bolsters of 70 mm. Power and manual versions are available, with Magna’s Futureform power version featuring ‘In-Touch’ thin profile contactless switch technology.
Nevertheless, regardless of vehicle segment, upscale look, feel and additional functionality will become the norm for seats. Tomorrow’s seats will have more feature content, but will also be as much as 30 percent lighter. As vehicles become smaller, we’ll also see a trend towards thinner seats, the kind you see in concept cars at auto shows. Not just because they look sleeker, but because they add interior space to the cabin.
In terms of the seat structure, to what extent is there a greater use of aluminium (or steel and aluminium combined) in manufacturing either the front or rear seats?
In extreme cases where we have a customer with an aggressive mass requirement, Magna Seating will employ more exotic materials (i.e. aluminum, magnesium, etc.). However, for most applications, Magna has found that efficient designs coupled with the strategic use of advanced high-strength steels can yield mass effective seats without a premium cost.
We are creating hybrid material solutions to further reduce mass within the seat structure. Magna believes that multi-material joining technologies are leading in realising the mass savings opportunities.
As we understand it, a key trend that within five years is that more than 60 percent of cars will have lighter coloured interiors, which presents more of a challenge for keeping the seats clean. How is Magna addressing that challenge?
Magna Seating is not a fabric supplier and normally these choices are directed by our OEMs. Fundamentally, wear resistance is dependent on fabric and leather quality. However, Magna Seating has developed robust wear tests and methodology of analysis for textiles and leather that are representative of real world use. A number of these test have been developed in direct response to field issues and warranty returns we have seen. At the same time, this helps Magna to provide the OEMs more data points when it comes to selecting a final material for new programmes. Magna Seating also works with the mills and tanneries to develop top coats/treatments that are resilient to denim dye transfer, as well as other issues with keeping the seats clean.
I guess leather and leather-look fabrics have always been classical materials used in cars and they are still very much a status symbol reflecting luxury and hence always favoured by customers. As some people down-size their vehicles, do they still want some genuine materials such as leather in their cars available as optional?
Statistical data indicates that consumer overall spend on their transportation choice has remained stable. However, Magna has observed that as consumers move to smaller vehicles, they are spending more on interior and comfort features. On one side we can see that the percentage of leather/leather-look fabrics in small vehicles is increasing. On the other, smell, haptic and visual technologies will play a more important role in bringing the consumer this upgrade sensation/feeling they are looking for.
With so many devices and materials stuffed into new vehicle seats these days, is there competition for real estate in the seat?
Absolutely, especially higher-end premium seats have electrical content that requires a significant amount of electrical harness’ and connectors. This can also present assembly challenges throughout the build process and invariably adds more time to assemble the seat and conduct quality checks prior to shipping to the OEM.
Today’s seat needs to accommodate a variety of features such as side airbags, seat track position sensors, occupant classification systems, seatbelt pre-tensioners and so on. The biggest challenge for Magna is integrating and packaging the increasing safety content.
Robust design and development processes including parallel path comfort analysis, and projections are critical to provide effective solutions and achieve the full content requirements. Magna Seating compact mechanisms and advanced high-strength steel strategies are also crucial in providing the additional package space required. Magna Seating also has several options available in proprietary foam formulations which provide alternatives to protect for comfort requirements.
Designing seats to meet the needs of all occupants is a tough challenge. Could you explain how you set about understanding the many needs of drivers and passengers and how those needs vary between, say, China and North America?
The product development strategy at Magna Seating starts by understanding the consumer wants and needs. VOC (Voice of the Customer) information is crucial to understanding the real needs of the consumer. These needs are met through cost-effective products for our customers and added value to the consumer.
An in-depth analysis of consumer clinics, market research for specific functionality, observational research, identification of unmet needs and benchmarking including outside our industry, among others, are key elements of Magna’s innovation process and product development strategy. A multi-disciplinary team analyses results in order to drive new products and ideas. In Magna Seating all of these ideas follow a disciplined development process from idea conception to physical validation.
The North American consumer is entitled and demanding. They want high-content even in lower vehicle segments along with a high level of reconfigurability. The tastes and values of the North American consumer are similar to the Western European consumer. Some of the key challenges in meeting the North American consumer’s expectations is providing them with affordable luxury and offering many features in smaller packages.
The Chinese consumer, on the other hand, views expensive consumer goods as trophies of their success and is evolving very quickly, but still they are driven by a need for day-to-day transportation. The demand for high automotive content will exponentially grow over the next decade. The Chinese consumer is a smart shopper, looking to fuel savings as a main driver, and being savvy about quality and price. Approximately 85 percent of cars are sold to urban dwellers. By 2020, it is expected that two-thirds of the Chinese population will live in urban areas.
Some specific product amenities include larger cup holders for Chinese tea containers. Also, load/cargo carrying capability is also quite important in this market. Additionally, rear seat comfort and feature content is more important than in any other market due to a large number of owners employing drivers. So extra inches in the rear, heated and cooled seats, reclining and massaging or winged headrest, sunshades, entertainment systems with iPads and integrated keyboards, adjustable tables/trays, and storage for instance for two champagne flutes are some features that are a must within the luxury segment. We do also see these features in North America, but only in limousines. So to speak, they want high-end features democratised as they often employ a driver.
Safety is another major concern for Chinese consumers, like in North America, and we are addressing this with innovation in our headrests. Another example is that the minivan is more for business than for family needs. Seat covers are often used for customisation and cleanliness. We have observed that the difference between Chinese and American consumers is that while the Chinese consumer may not be driving to work, they need to stay productive and socially connected too. American consumers want to be productive in different way, by being at least hands free connected and spending breakfast time in the car. Magna Seating is very attentive to consumer trends, which we use to make recommendations on design and feature content to OEMs through our local and global teams.
Regarding the different shapes and sizes of people, there are some basic tenets of comfort engineering that apply to all people and all vehicle models. Through research and benchmarking, Magna Seating has developed CAE tools and design guidelines which help us create a seat design tailored to each vehicle model. These tools and guidelines take into consideration such criteria as human anthropometry, human biomechanics, geographic regional preferences, seat structures, seat features and adjustability, foam, and trim.
We can also tailor the seat design for regional markets, using tools like PeopleSize as one example, which give us human measurement data from various geographic regions around the world. Along with designing seated comfort into our vehicle seats, we must also design-in user-friendly ergonomics to features such as fold, tumble, recline, and stow, using Jack ergonomics software and our ergonomics design guidelines.
Recent research concludes that drowsy driving causes 20 percent of all accidents. We have heard that through technology advancements seats can now monitor the driver for physical signs of stress and drowsiness. In your view, what further ways could front and rear seats be advanced in this respect?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE research service
