Seat Technology
Unmet needs for adult safety protection can put children at particular risk. One case in point is the need for stronger seat backs. In a rear-impact crash, the vehicle’s front seats can collapse rearward. The result is not just back injury for the front-seat occupant: the rearward collapse of the back of the front seat injures any occupants behind it, in the rear seat. All too often, the rear seat occupants injured or killed in cases of seatback collapse are the vehicle owners’ own children. -Testimony of Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen, and Former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Feb 28, 2007 |
The technology to make seats safer has existed for decades. There have been vehicles available with stronger seats for quite some time. Vehicles with no rear seats, are often built with stronger front seats like that of the Toyota MR-2, Pontiac Fiero and many pickup trucks on the road toady. Two vehicles that were built with stronger seats by standard were the AMC Gremlin and VW Beetle.
NHTSA does currently have a seat strength standard, but it remains so pathetically inadequate that some believe vehicle seats are held to a weaker standard than lawn chairs. Manufacturers are well aware of the dangers of seat back failures in crashes, and NHTSA is likewise aware—although it nonetheless aborted its proposalin 2000 to remedy the problem. Congress must insist that NHTSA make necessary updates to this important rule. |
Only one auto manufacturer today promotes that its seats can withstand a rear impact of 30mph and keep its occupants in place. That company is Merced-Benz.
This isn't to say that the other auto manufacturers can't build seats just as strong as Merceds-Benz, they just aren't.
Rear impact seat test results have greatly improved due to new seatbelt designs which have the seatbelts attached to the seats, not the frame of the car. This does a much better job of keeping the occupant in the seat. Manufacturers who have designed such seat belt systems include Mercedes, BMW, GM, Chrysler and Audi.Blow-molded seatback takes shape
Dow Automotive, based in Auburn Hills, says its blow-molded plastic seatback technology can cut weight by 50 percent, lower investment costs and, depending upon build volumes, reduce system costs versus traditional metal units.
The system bowed in rear-seat applications on the 2007 Audi TT and in North America on the new Ford Fusion. Its use on a second Ford platform is expected later this year, and development on additional Audi models and at other automakers is underway, according to Dow Automotive.
The design currently is validated only for rear seatbacks. But Dow is hopeful that further development will lead to front seatback applications within five years.Rear seatbacks typically are made of stamped sheet metal and tubular steel reinforcements. Dow uses polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is formulated to achieve the desired physical properties necessary for the blow-molding process while maintaining impact properties across a broad temperature range.
Supplied by Lear Corp., the Audi seat won a Society of Plastics Engineers award for innovation last year. Dow says switching from steel to plastics saved about five pounds, reduced tooling cost savings by $1.2 million and eliminated about $2 per seat in system cost. Another advantage: Lead-time for blow-molding tooling is 10 to 12 weeks. Dow says steel systems can take three to five times as long to set up.
Dow also says that blow-molded seatback technology offers greater design freedom over conventional seatbacks because plastic can achieve a much wider variety of geometries than steel, such as a seatback that includes a headrest or lumbar support with no penalty to tooling costs as with steel. Complex shapes and features can be molded in one process, compared with multiple stamping processes required with steel.
The seatbacks are fully structural in that they bear and transfer loads across the part to support the mass of the passenger and the vehicle, allowing it to function as a seat and to accommodate luggage retention requirements. Dow says its material is the first thermoplastic to meet Europe’s tough ECE 17 luggage retention requirements that took effect four years ago.
From AutoTech Daily
If you or someone you know has been injured in a seat back failure accident, you should contact a personal injury attorney immediately. Those who have questions or who may have been injured in a seat back failure-related collision should contact the attorneys at Miller, Curtis and Weisbrod for further information.