In recent automobile development, vehicle weight reduction has become a very important goal. Seat weight reduction is a large portion of vehicle weight reduction. In this study, a specimen tensile tests were conducted on the Almag material, which is an alloy of aluminum and magnesium, and also conducted on SAFH440, SAFH 590, SAFC780, and SAFH980, which are mild steel materials used in the seat frame. The tensile specimen tests were carried out in two speed; 2mm/s and 4mm/s, and the obtained stress to strain curve was converted to the analysis material card of true stress to true strain curve to be used in the seat structural analysis. The constructed analysis material card was used in the specimen tensile finite element analysis, and the analysis result was able to obtain the stress to strain curve similar to the test result.

In the present study, FE analysis was performed for characterising structural strength of a seat frame w.r.t. varying sectional shapes as well as different materials of the seat back frame based on the FMVSS 207 regulation in order to obtain the design outline of a lightweight seat frane structure. Four types of materials, i.e., SAPH440, Al7021, Al6082 and carbon/epoxy composites were applied to the seat back frame type beams and their bending behaviours were compared by three point bending FE analysis. Consequently, the lightweight structure of seat back frame with the equivalent strength characteristics of conventional frame was suggested.

This study investigates the safety and life during the fatigue load by the configuration of seat frame. On back frame at seat frame, the life and damage are analyzed. The deformation and equivalent stress are compared with each other through the vibration analysis, The result of this study through the analysis can be applied to develop the automotive seat frame with durabilty and safety.

An aluminum with the light weight has been used at the automotive car body. As the aluminum is applied to the automotive seat, the optimum design becomes important by investigating the mechanical properties. This study aims at suggesting the basic data for the optimum design of automotive seat frame. In this study, the mechanical properties are investigated through the simulation analysis on the entire structure of seat frame. Two study models using the real commercial vehicles are designed with CATIA program and analyzed with ANSYS program. The harsh condition during the driving state is supposed by using the analyses of natural frequencies and harmonic responses. As the real frequency ranges in this study are set by selecting the natural frequencies through modal analysis. The critical frequencies are analyzed by harmonic response on which the driver is seated. The values of maximum equivalent stresses at models 1 and 2 are shown to be 18.073MPa and 2259.2MPa respectively. The critical frequency at models 1 and 2 are also shown to be 77 Hz and 206 Hz. The maximum stress at model 1 becomes far bigger than model 2. By comparing two models, model 1 has more critical condition than model 2. At the design of automotive seat frame at the dynamic vibration condition, the material of design with the durability and safety can be secured through this study result.

Finite Element analysis were carried out to investigate the deformation behaviours of a buckled automotive seat frames made of three different types of materials, i.e., SAPH440, Al6082-T6 and Al7021-T7, when they were subject to external load, based on the ECE R14 regulation to achieve lightweight structure. Also, several thicknesses were applied to the seat frame structures of each material for characterising deformations. It was found that light weight seat frame structure was obtained compared to conventional steel structure when it was made of aluminium under the condition of satisfying ECE R14 regulation. Interpretation result, when changing from SAPHH440 material has a thickness of 1.5mm to Al material has a thickness of 3.0mm, that could checking weight lightening about 47%.

In this study, the analyses of structure, fatigue and vibration with two models of 1 and 2. As the result of structural analysis, the equivalent stress and the total deforamtion of model 1 become higher than those of model 2.Model 1 shows fatigue life more than model 2. As the vibration analysis, model 1 has the safety better than model 2. As shown by these results, the main parts ofdamage and the weak areas can be investigated to differ from each other according to the configuration of model though these models have the same material property. The result of this study through the analysis can be applied to develop the optimal design of automotive seat frame with durabilty and safety.

In this study, analysis on the stiffness of the headrest, the stiffness of front-rear load and the torsion of cushion frame was performed using finite element method in order to investigate the properties of the stress-deformation by material characteristics according to the test requirements of FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard). The results are shown that AZ31 (Mg alloy) and A365 (Al alloy) with low modulus of elasticity and density have higher strain rate than steel in terms of stress-deformation and meet the standards for safety within 108 mm of the maximum amount of deformation. Considering it’s safety and durability, however, the selection of AZ31 for light weight seems difficult to gain the reliability because it causes an excessive deformation, and therefore it is not expected to be used for recliner where stress is concentrated and also the bracket linking rail and cushion frame.

Among the various parts of automobile, automotive seat is the most fundamental item that ride comfort can be evaluated as the part contacted at human body. Dynamic stabilities on 3 kinds of models are analysed according to inside beam configuration of rear seat frame in this study. Model 1 has the basic design of straight beam. Model 2 has the beam that is curved slightly from model 1 configuration and model 3 has honeycomb structure. Total deformations and equivalent stresses are investigated when these models are crushed at side. Total deformations due to frequencies are also obtained and critical frequencies on these frequency responses are investigated. By comparing total deformation configurations of model 1,2 and 3, model 1 and 2 apply the damage to passengers but model 3 absorbs the damage. Model 1, 2 and 3 show total deformations of 482.7, 178.9 and 151.62 mm at the critical frequencies of 180, 200 and 150Hz respectively. Because model 3 does not apply the damage to passengers and the total deformation at critical frequency becomes minimum among three models on frequency response, this model becomes most stable among 3 kinds of models when crushed at side.

일반적으로 기계부품의 설계는 부품의 설계, 해석, 그리고 시제품에 대한 성능변화를 통해서 수행된다. 이와 같은 방식의 설계는 여러 번의 시행착오에 따른 개발경비와 개발기간이 많이 소요되고 각 단계를 수행시킬 전문인력도 필요하므로 현재 산업현장에서 요구되는 신속하고 저렴한 제품개발에 적합하지 않다. 이를 해결할 수 있는 한 가지 방법으로 각 개발과정을 하나의 시스템에서 제어할 수 있는 통합시스템을 개발하는 것이다. 이런 통합시스템은 특정 제품에 대한 전용시스템이 될 가능성이 크지만 통합시스템을 구축하는 기법은 일반적인 제품들에 대해서도 적용이 가능하다. 본 논문에서는 자동차의 부품 중에서 좌석의 프레임 설계를 수행하는 통합시스템을 구축한다. 자동차 좌석은 법규에 규정되어 있는 강도와 강성을 만족해야 하므로 본 통합시스템에서는 정적조건 강도시험인 헤드레스트 테스트를 통해서 좌석을 설계한다. 그리고 통합시스템은 UNIX환경에서 C언어를 이용해 좌석 모델의 생성과 정적 성능평가를 수행할 상용프로그램들을 제어하며, 그래픽 환경은 Motif로 구현한다.