Adient’s UltraThin seat was awarded second place in the Future of Lightweighting category at the 2022 Altair Enlighten Awards.
Great Minds Think Light: The Altair Enlighten Award
The automotive industry’s only award dedicated to lightweighting and sustainability celebrates a decade of innovation.
The Altair Enlighten Awards recognize the greatest advances in sustainability and lightweight design that demonstrate successful commitment to reducing carbon footprints, reducing water and energy use, and reusing and recycling materials.
UltraThin is a new, unique seat construction made from Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) panels that provides high levels of comfort and support, resulting in significant space savings, component consolidation and overall mass reduction. This technology is not found anywhere else in the auto industry.
Thomas Gould
“UltraThin is the result of thousands of hours of research and development and incorporates a multitude of innovations. It is a significant paradigm shift from traditional foam and panel construction to cushion and back comfort panels made from recyclable thermoplastic elastomers. It has the potential to transform the seat with thinner seat sections while improving comfort and safety through engineered deflection and concave contours.” : Tom Gould, Director of Design & Technology at Adient
UltraThin seats can be used in all seat rows and in all vehicle segments. Automakers are working with Adient to develop this technology for their existing seat structures. The range of customizations includes front and rear rows of seats for multiple segments and a variety of trim levels, allowing the technology to be used from base models through to fully-fledged luxury seats.
The supportive UltraThin panel adapts to the posture, height and weight of the driver, allowing for a comfortable adjustment to the different heights of the occupants. The thinner backrest saves about 40mm of knee room for second-row passengers. The thin, supportive cushion can reduce the block height by up to 45mm, freeing up under floor space for the battery packs. The technology saves 44 mm of space per row and reduces the overall weight of the vehicle.
Other features are:
- 30% reduction in seat trim volume
- 14% less overall mass (compared to standard foam, paneling and comfort systems)
- Top-of-the-line premium comfort in a sleek package
- 10% fewer total seat parts (compared to standard foam, trim and comfort systems)
