Cutting-edge Technologies Merge to Reach Their Peak in Car Seats
at the Dongtan Seat R&D Center
The seats of an automobile are the parts that comes into closest contact with both driver and passenger. Car seats are a core automotive component, and demand the highest standards in terms of safety, convenience, user satisfaction, and more. Meeting such standards involves ergonomics, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, electronic control technology, design, and other disciplines and technologies. It takes precision R&D and the most exacting tests to develop car seats.
The Hyundai Transys Seat R&D Center was established in 2007 to study and research the characteristics of automotive seats, and to develop seats that can meet diverse consumer needs. Nearly 500 engineers and researchers working at the site of 449,587 m² site and state-of-the-art seat development and testing technology, the Hyundai Transys Seat R&D Center is the largest car seat R&D facility in Korea.
The birthplace of Hyundai Transys’s seating innovations, many of which have been recognized as “world-firsts” or “Korean-firsts,” the Seat R&D Center is the home of “K-seat” technology. The creations of the Seat R&D Center include the Ergo Motion Seat, with its seven internal air pockets for optimum comfort and support (applied on the Genesis G80 and G90); the Dynamic Body Care Technology, an in-seat tap-and-vibration massage system which reduces occupant fatigue on long trips (applied on the Kia EV9); and, the Low-power Carbon Heating Wire Technology, an energy-efficient and durable seat heating system (applied on the Kia EV9). The Seat R&D Center’s mission is to consistently elevate the customer experience. It researches and develops seating and other interior components for a wide range of vehicles, including self-driving vehicles and purpose-built vehicles, as well as for urban air mobility, which is an exciting new development in itself.
Rigorous Testing to Reach Optimal Seating Quality
As seats are directly connected with occupant safety, they must be tested rigorously under a gamut of conditions to validate and make improvements as necessary. The Seat R&D Center runs over 180 types of tests on its new developments to ensure the durability and stability of its products. Complete seats as well as seat components are tested in this manner for quality assurance.
Seat testing criteria include durability, safety, comfort, and materials. The following are some of the most important steps in the testing process.
Durability Testing: Perfection Achieved Through a Repeated Process of Testing and Improvement
The focus of seat durability testing is long-term seat quality. One test involves using a robot which mimics the movements of a person taking a seat and then leaving the seat. The action is repeated tens of thousands of times to test for seat durability. Over time, repeated vehicle entries and exits take a toll on car seats, allowing testers to check how much the seats’ function and shape are affected.
Another test identifies the durability of power seats. The impact of long-term repeated use of button-operated power seats on their components is studied to find out how to maintain the normal functioning of power seats for as long as possible.
Safety Testing: No Compromises on Safety
Safety testing of car seats determines how well they do their part in keeping occupants safe in accidents. Together with the many other components that make up complete vehicles, the seats have to meet the regulatory requirements of various countries for cars to be sold in the market. The sled test is a major component of the legal compliance testing of car seats. Dummies fitted with sensors are used on a sled on a rail to study and achieve occupant safety in front and rear collisions. The testing process is filmed using a high-speed camera to obtain and analyze data on the impacts applied to seats and the injuries sustained by occupants. This data forms a foundation for designs that prioritize occupant safety.
Other major components of safety testing include side airbag deployment testing, which ensures the proper deployment of side airbags in collisions and provides an understanding of the degree of force applied to the human body through an analysis of airbag deployment speed and timing. Seat belt anchorage testing is also conducted, which uses tensile loads to test the strength of seat belt anchorages and seat frames.
Comfort Testing: Mobility as Pleasant and Comfortable
The aim of comfort testing is to develop solutions that make mobility as pleasant and comfortable as possible. With the most prolonged contact occurring between the seats and occupants, the seating experiences of individuals can vary greatly, necessitating R&D to provide satisfaction across the board. Hyundai Transys conducts a wide variety of comfort testing to accumulate data, which is then converted to real-life figures.
Depending on road conditions, cars can generate many different combinations of vibration and noise. Since vibration and noise are transferred to occupants through the seats, it is critical that they be curbed by seats to deliver the emotional quality that consumers expect from their cars. However, emotional quality is something that is highly subjective.
The Seat R&D Center’s BSR Lab tests for buzzes, squeaks, and rattles under various combinations of environmental conditions. In anechoic chambers free from the influence of outside noise, extreme conditions are created for testing to be conducted in, including extreme hot and cold, with temperatures ranging from -40°C to 80°C. The noise and vibration that can occur in different conditions are then identified and addressed for improvement.
Experience Life in Future Mobility Spaces
at the Hyundai Transys Exhibition Hall
In April of this year the Seat R&D Center opened a new section, a space in which visitors can appreciate the past, present, and future of R&D at Hyundai Transys. This would be the Hyundai Transys Exhibition Hall, located on the first floor of the research building. The 330 m² exhibition space showcases Hyundai Transys’s milestones in R&D to date, and predicts the innovations the automotive world can expect from the veteran automotive developer in the coming years.
Prospective visitors will not only be able to learn about the evolving seating technology of Hyundai Transys, but will also be able to touch, feel, and experience future mobility seating technology. Future mobility such as self-driving cars, purpose-built vehicles (PBV), and urban air mobility (UAM) will transform life, and visitors to the Hyundai Transys Exhibition Hall will be able to experience the interiors of such state-of-the-art vehicles and aircraft to get a taste of the new lifestyle they will enable.
HTVM 24 : Next-generation Autonomous Mobility Interior Solution
The HTVM 24 is a total mobility interior solution, an archetype of the Hyundai Transys-brand seating technology. The HTVM 24’s variable mechanical structure enables interior environments that meet a range of user needs. Driving support and stand-up support for the elderly, persons with disabilities, and pregnant women are among the advanced features included. The HTVM 24 senses occupants’ biological signals to offer wellness amenities such as reclining and massage.
UAM Interior Solutions: Urban air mobility space optimization technology
Hyundai Transys’s UAM interior solutions are designed to optimize the limited space in vertical take-off and landing aircraft. A flip-seat technology allows seats to face forward or back, and the replacement of foam pads with mesh material achieves the light seat weight necessary for spatial efficiency. Visitors can enjoy VR flights on an UAM aircraft at the Hyundai Transys Exhibition Hall. You only need to take your seat and put on a VR headset to take off vertically and fly 500 meters above New York City.
As cars evolve into “mobile living spaces,” seating technology, a core feature of future mobility, is becoming more and more important. The Seat R&D Center of Hyundai Transys is continuously developing seating technology for the interiors of the cars and aircraft of our future, where we will enjoy boundless freedom in terms of mobility.
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