Continuing just-auto's series of interviews with tier one component manufacturers, Matthew Beecham talked to David Kazyak, Vice President, Global Seat Engineering, Lear Corporation about the use of alternative and advanced materials in seats, breathable fabric surfaces, carbon fibre seat frames as well as seating for the autonomous car.
What are the big changes you see in the automotive seating industry?
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As always weight and comfort continue to be important product drivers in the vehicle interiors. However, we are seeing increased focus on new features, convenience and craftsmanship.
In what ways will your recent acquisition of Eagle Ottawa enhance your seating business?
Eagle Ottawa is the world's largest supplier of premium leather to the global automotive industry. The addition of Eagle Ottawa will further strengthen Lear's leading position in luxury and performance automotive seating, complement Lear's industry-leading seat cover capabilities and allow us to provide an even higher level of customisation, improved craftsmanship and better overall value to our customers. This acquisition is consistent with Lear's strategy to strengthen our Seating business by expanding our capabilities, particularly in the area of comfort and craftsmanship.
I guess the use of alternative and advanced materials in seats helps reduce weight. Could you talk us through a recent seating innovation that has resulted in a significant reduction in weight?
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By GlobalDataAt Lear we are capitalising on EPP (Expanded Poly Propylene) properties, to reduce weight in structural components. Additionally, our innovations in joining technologies enable us to capture upwards of a 60 percent reduction in the thickness of material used and thereby save weight. Lear is the first to offer an upper plastic seat back member that not only reduces weight but also simplifies the structure by integrating several functions into one component.
Lear is likewise generating weight reduction in the "soft" seat products as well with advances in polyurethane foam and new cover materials. With the DECS (Dynamic Environmental Comfort System) we can reduce the need for metal and foam and heavy plastic attachment or reinforcement components resulting in 30 percent to 80 percent mass reduction compared to conventional foam and trim comfort systems. We also have a tuned comfort system, ComforTune that uses focused foam coring to eliminate up to 15 percent of the foam weight.
To what extent is Lear using 'green' (bio-based) materials in car seats?
Lear is considered the industry leader in the use of bio-based SoyFoam in seating. We were first-to-market in 2008 on the Ford Mustang and today have converted nearly our entire North American product for most customers over to the environmentally friendly soybean oil-based foam, replacing five percent by pad weight of the petroleum-based chemicals. SoyFoam reduces CO2 emission by 5.5 kg for each kg of soy polyol we use in foam. In 2015 we reduced enough CO2 emissions to fill the Washington monument. We recently gained approval for the use of a formula with ten percent reduction of petroleum-based chemicals and are launching at the end of this year at a major OEM. This adds to our total offering of head rest, console, armrest, and seating pad foam using all of the various catalysts such as MDI for higher density small parts and TDI for seating form in North America. Later this year we are initiating trials in Europe using 15 percent of the pad weight soy-based content followed rapidly by full commercialisation.
Aside from green materials, we continue to see a great deal of work being focussed on different seat fabrics, creating more breathable or waterproof surfaces. In this respect, in what ways has Lear pushed back the technical boundaries?
Lear has a breathable fluorocarbon finish called TeXstyle Defense. TeXstyle Defense is water repellent finish to our fabric which enables liquids to bead and run off the surface, protecting the fabric. TeXstyle Defense also has anti-staining, anti-linting, and anti-odour properties. Unlike other products on the market, TeXstyle Defense is formulated for our customer's exact specifications to give our customers the customised protection they need.
Can we expect to see more fibre-reinforced composite seat back frames that provide a low mass design and improved packaging efficiency? What trends do you see occurring with slimmer seats?
Certainly there is a lot buzz about composites and plastic. The gold standard in composites and weight reduction is carbon fibre and Lear is one of the leaders in this area with the use of carbon fibre front seat frames. Currently we are making OE carbon fibre seat frames for many luxury and performance brands. While composites are capturing attention, it is important not to rule steel out. Steel still has a lot of run way, in seating we are just scratching the surface on ultra high strength steels and we see a steel backbone for some time to come.
Slim seating is quite an opportunity to the OEM. It is easy to see the attractiveness of thinning the seats to still provide equivalent rear passenger comfort and roominess in a short overall vehicle. At Lear we offer a number of thin front seat products, including LeanProfile, as part of our performance seat segment. For the rear seat we have our ThinFold which provided interior and cargo space without sacrificing second and third row comfort.
In terms of seat trends, what do you see happening with decorative surface materials?
Lear's TeXstyle Enhance products provide surface embellishments to automotive textiles. By using techniques such as: digital printing, 3D embossing, laser etching, specialty embroidery, and HF welding, Lear can use a base fabric and apply one or more secondary processes to create unique design effects. At Lear we believe that this is exactly what the market is looking for. These textile enhancing alternatives, (TeXstyle) provide opportunities for seat designers to not only, get creative, enhance their brand image, but also enables our customers to implement design changes or customisation quickly with minimal validation.
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 Global light vehicle seating market- forecasts to 2030
