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Ford's New Seating Design Mimics Comforts of Home


February 2007
 Filed under: FORD Car News | FORD Headlines
February 26, 2007 -- While a vehicle's exterior styling may be what makes heads turn, the interior is where we live. Ford Motor Company understands the need for comfortable, well-designed interiors. Customer expectations for vehicle seat comfort has increased significantly in recent years due to longer driving time and increased back pain problems. Multiple survey results indicate that modern car drivers expect seats to have better support and more sophisticated adjustment capabilities.

"The seat is one of the primary influences on consumers when they buy the vehicle," said Steve Nunez, supervisor of Ford's Active Comfort Engineering team. "It is the only part of the vehicle that the consumer is in contact with through the lifetime of ownership."
Ford researchers and engineers in Aachen, Germany, have developed a Multi-Contour Seat (MCS). The seat uses a pneumatic system with bladders between the frame and the foam cushion to adjust contour. In this case, the seat frame requires only minor modifications -- reducing the cost and weight penalties associated with a full scale seat frame reconstruction.

MCS modernizes the pneumatic system with more than 10 air cushions and many other unique new features. Unlike a normal seat, MCS covers a range of contours and accommodates various driver sizes and shapes. It provides great postural and lateral supports, and helps to relax the back muscles with multiple bladders in both the seat back and seat pan.

MCS also allows the driver to configure his/her preferred seat mode (sporty or comfort) in advance and change to a particular setting at the touch of a button -- adjusting to match driving conditions.

The feature list also includes a sophisticated lumbar massage function. And a second massage function connects to four adjustable air cushions with constantly varied pressure. While the active seat motions are barely noticeable to the driver, he or she will feel less fatigued at the end of a long trip.

The development team has ensured that the new MCS design offers enhanced comfort without compromising safety integrity.

Similar to other standard seats, MCS is an integral part of the restraint system, carrying safety devices such as a pyrotechnical buckle pretensioner, side air bags and anti-submarine humps.

The development team has received positive feedback and high praise for MCS design from customers who participated in clinic evaluations conducted in Germany and the United States.

MCS contains a balance of technology innovations in comfort, convenience, and safety, and takes seat comfort and driver relaxation to a higher level. Undoubtedly, this design has the potential to make long distance travel by car a much more enjoyable experience for Ford customers.

Flexible Packaging
Ford researchers and engineers have developed a new flexible vehicle packaging system to design vehicle interiors.

At the heart is the Programmable Vehicle Model (PVM) -- a mechanical device that lets engineers instantly shape a car's full-size interior and explore options for placing seats and controls. This work is done at the beginning of a car's development with an eye toward safety, comfort, and space. The PVM, which earned a 2006 Henry Ford Technical Achievement award, is a computer-controlled, adjustable package that works similar to the 3-D buck, except it allows larger surfaces, such as roof sections, door panels and instrument panels, to be moved in and out.

The actual system, called Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL), integrates a physical PVM with a virtual computer model, reducing the need for physical prototypes, and optimizing interior comfort, convenience and ergonomics.

Superplastic Forming
Superplastic Forming (SPF) is known within the aerospace and ground transportation industries where production volumes are normally very low and there is a need to form materials that are difficult to work with such as aluminum. Ford researchers and engineers have improved upon this technology, making it suitable for high-volume automotive applications while providing a significant cost savings.

The Ford Advanced Superplastic Forming Technology (FAST) encompasses a suite of new technologies, including novel die designs that combine elements of traditional stamping with superplastic forming; flexible automation for blank heating and loading; automated part extraction and cooling; and the use of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to optimize the process. In total, FAST decreases the overall cycle time and cost of superplastic forming.

Vehicle Dynamics
During the past 15 years, Ford's European passenger cars have been widely recognized for their excellent vehicle dynamics performance. To ensure Ford's continued development in this area, Research and Advanced Engineering has created a dedicated vehicle dynamics organization, the Global Vehicle Dynamics (GVeD) Department, co-located in Germany and Belgium.

The primary goal of vehicle dynamics development is to provide customers with a safe and comfortable driving experience on a large variety of road surfaces= and weather conditions. These vehicle dynamics engineers are developing innovative concepts using new materials to achieve improved driving, steering, and braking performance.

The RevoKnuckle and the suspension layout for the 2006 Ford Focus World Rally Car are examples of new suspension design concepts developed by Ford research engineers.

While the team is making significant progress in continuous improvement of suspension concepts, it is also working on other technologies, including Continuously Controlled Damping, Ford Active Steering, Steering System Test Machine and Interactive Vehicle Dynamics Control.

Noise reduction
To ensure Ford vehicles meet customer expectations of a quiet and smooth ride, R&A applies advanced and innovative Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) technologies to its design and engineering processes. Ford's Powertrain NVH team has developed a wide array of industry-leading NVH development capabilities, including advanced hybrid electric and hydrogen vehicles.

The process of engineering vehicles to achieve refined NVH is complex, beginning at the earliest concept phase and continuing through to advanced development, design verification, and production quality control.

As advances in areas such as new diesel engines and cylinder deactivation create new vibration sources, Ford is creating new computer-aided methods. One such method is Torsional Vibration Analysis, which minimizes the torsional, or twisting, vibrations of the powertrain system that create interior noise, jointly developed by Ford and a leading university.

Ford engineers also have created several industry-leading laboratories to enhance NVH development capabilities. In the Spin Torsional Laboratory, engineers use proprietary technology and a "virtual" engine to simulate types of engine torque signatures from I-3 to V-12 engines and Ford’s newest facility, the Drivetrain Noise and Vibration Laboratory, is used to measure driveshaft and axle NVH phenomena.

Source: Ford Motor Company

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