No Ordinary Car Seat: Lear Corporation creates an optimal seating experience using ESI Virtual Seat Solution during the conception phase

Lear Corporation, a Fortune 200 company, is a leading supplier of automotive seating and electrical, serving customers all across the globe.

As one of the world’s only fully integrated manufacturers of the entire seat, Lear has a proven track record in delivering quality seating systems to the auto industry. To stay at the forefront of technological innovation, they decided to use a new method - virtual seat prototyping - for their newest concept, the ProActive™ Posture Seating System.

The ProActive™ Posture Seating System optimizes a driver seating position, by utilizing Lear’s MySeat by Lear™ app. This enables auto adjustment of the bladders in the seat, based on sensor data and personal settings.

Using ESI Virtual Seat Solution, Lear first determined, for multiple anthropometries, the exact position of an occupant when he or she initially settles into the seat.

With this reference posture, as well as demographic, anthropometric and subjective feedback data, the optimal seat position for each type of driver was determined. Then, Lear’s team worked on controlling the bladder system within the seat to position each occupant in their ideal driving position, promoting proper posture and improving long term wellness. Virtual Seat Solution enabled the modelling of the inflation of the bladders and predicted how the bladders affect the posture of the occupant.

By simulating the inflation of the bladders and the impact on the occupant’s posture, Lear was able to optimize their seat concept. “The information allowed us to place the multi-contour bladder positions appropriately in the seat structure”, says Missy Pereny, Seat Comfort Engineer for Lear.

Finally, they created the MySeat by Lear™ algorithm, TheraMetric™. This app allows the driver to enter their personal information, and the TheraMetric™ algorithm then optimizes their seating position by processing this personal data alongside sensor data. The app controls the system within the seat, inflating and deflating the bladders as needed, maneuvering the driver into the ideal position. A secondary setting then takes the driver into a ‘wellness’ position which promotes focused support to the thoracic region of the spine and secondary support to the upper back, lumbar and sacral regions of the spine.

The project was fully successful in faithfully simulating Lear’s lumbar support system and its effects on driver posture, allowing for more predictable results earlier in the development phase and a final product in line with Lear’s expectations.

Lear, a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, enables superior in-vehicle experiences for consumers around the world. Our diverse team of talented employees in 39 countries is driven by a commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and sustainability. Lear is Making every drive better™ by providing the technology for safer, smarter, and more comfortable journeys. Lear serves every major automaker in the world and ranks #166 on the Fortune 500.

For more information visit Lear Corporation

Story release date: September 28, 2016