Meritor's New Seat Adjusting Systems Provide Fewer Parts And Standardization Along Vehicle Platforms
26 February 1998
Meritor's New Seat Adjusting Systems Provide Fewer Parts And Standardization Along Vehicle Platforms
DETROIT, Feb. 26 -- Meritor Automotive Inc.'s
Seat Adjusting Systems business is armed with an innovative technology and
related techniques that have led to significant new business contracts - among
them being selected to supply one of the industry's largest seat makers with
100 percent of the power and manual seat adjusters for a new General Motors
truck program.
To meet the demand, Seat Adjusting Systems will assemble newly introduced
power seat adjusters at the Meritor Light Vehicle Systems facility in
Gordonsville, Tennessee. The Gordonsville plant will also be the site for
assembly of the seat adjuster's drive motor.
"We're very excited about this business and the opportunity to offer new
seat adjuster technology," said J. Douglas Lamb, vice president and general
manager of Meritor's Seat Adjusting Systems business. "We're especially
optimistic about our new All-Belts-To-Seats (ABTS) design and its potential
new applications."
Meritor's new ABTS unit is designed to be the lightest and most easily
packaged mechanism in the industry. The ABTS feature will allow all three
seatbelt attachment points to be located on the upper track of the seat
adjuster, enabling the OEM to install a self-contained unit, reducing line
inventory and in-plant operations. Further, by integrating the track
profiles, seat manufacturers can lower their investment in tooling, while
working with only one supplier and having greater design flexibility.
In addition to the ATBS technology, the program's standardization is
unique. Meritor will supply 12 different manual and electric design
configurations, all with the same track profile for one OEM seating platform
thereby reducing tooling and material costs over the life of the platform.
The Mechanical Memory Device with the ATBS design is another Meritor
technology making its debut on a General Motors new truck program. This
feature is for manual seats in two-door applications. It allows a seat to
"remember" its original position prior to being released forward to provide
access to rear seating. Typically, current designs require an additional set
of seat tracks to accomplish this function. The Meritor design utilizes one
set of tracks, providing forward and backward adjustment and memory, in a
lighter, less complex and less costly system.
"We are bringing Meritor technology together in products that continually
redefine industry standards," Lamb said. "We are committed to developing
innovative, quality products as we work to win new contracts, expand our
markets, and better serve our customers."
Testing and Dynamic FEA Ensures Design Excellence and Shortens Development
A recently completed 27,000-square foot expansion of the unit's Center of
Expertise in Bracebridge, Ontario, has greatly enhanced quality and design
efforts. It has allowed dramatic expansion of the unit's Design/Process
Engineering and Quality Control offices, as well as its testing and
prototyping capabilities.
Upgrades and additional capabilities added to the facility include:
* A new model shop and two garages for vehicle evaluations.
* Expanded Finite Element Analysis (FEA) which allows static and dynamic
evaluation reducing the iterations of design and prototypes.
* The ability to evaluate noise levels and measure sound pressure and
sound power of seat adjusters.
* A new environmental chamber providing a wider range of more conclusive
testing.
* Addition of a 5,000-pound force, three-axis electro-dynamic vibration
test stand that allows testing of the entire seat system for validating
the design and performance of seat adjusters.
* The capability to manufacture test stands internally now allows
additional testing for:
* strength
* performance
* reliability
* durability.
"These enhancements to our testing capabilities add tremendous value and
quality to our seat adjusting systems," Lamb said. "This plays a large part
in our ability to develop and apply technology that provides quality, cost-
effective and feature-laden systems to customers."
Meritor's Seat Adjusting Systems business develops and supplies manual
and two-, four- and six-way powered seat adjusting systems on a global basis.
Meritor Automotive, with 1997 sales of approximately $3.3 billion, is a
world leading supplier of a broad range of components and systems for
commercial, specialty and light vehicles. Meritor consists of two global
businesses: Heavy Vehicle Systems, a leading supplier of drivetrain systems
and components for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, trailers and off-highway
equipment and specialty vehicles including military, bus and coach, and fire
and rescue; and Light Vehicle Systems, a major supplier of roof, door, access
control and seat adjusting systems, electric motors and electronic controls,
suspension systems and wheels for passenger cars, light trucks and sport
utility vehicles.
SOURCE Meritor Automotive, Inc.