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Revolutionizing Airline Seat Testing with IoT: A Case Study on Sicma Aero Seat SA
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud
Applicable Industries
- Cities & Municipalities
- Electronics
Applicable Functions
- Maintenance
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Manufacturing Process Simulation
- Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services
- Testing & Certification
The Challenge
Sicma Aero Seat SA, a French manufacturer of airline passenger seats, faced a significant challenge in the design, manufacturing, and maintenance of its products. The company's seats, which range from simple to sophisticated models with complex electrical and electronic features, had to comply with stringent safety regulations. These regulations required the seats to withstand a crash impact 16 times the force of gravity, translating into tougher design and manufacturing constraints. Additionally, the seats had to appeal to passengers and adhere to various certification and safety regulations, including those related to crash impact. The company also had to meet customer specifications and use a combination of virtual and physical testing to meet appropriate regulations. The challenge was to improve their seating products, cut certification costs, and reduce product development and delivery cycles.
About The Customer
Sicma Aero Seat SA is a subsidiary of Zodiac SA, a French company that has been in business since 1909. The company is headquartered in France with operations in Germany, Brazil, Dubai, Hong Kong, and the United States. Sicma is renowned for the manufacture of airline passenger seats, convertible passenger seats, passenger seats for low-cost companies, crew and pilot seats, and helicopter seats. It counts the world’s premier airlines – as well as Airbus and Boeing – among its customers. The company offers new generations of competitive, 16 g-compliant seats, which require cabin equipment materials to be able to withstand a crash impact 16 times the force of gravity.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Sicma Aero Seat SA increased the amount of virtual testing performed to improve their seating products. The company used Altair HyperWorks, a simulation platform, for their static and dynamic seat analyses. This included using Altair HyperMesh for finite element (FE) meshing activities, HyperView to visualize FE and multi-body systems results, and HyperCrash pre-processing technology for crash and safety modeling tasks. The company also used Altair’s RADIOSS solver for static and dynamic simulation and optimization. This solution allowed Sicma to find the best solution faster when a new seat failed a test, providing a better understanding of the failure phenomena. It also helped avoid lengthy and costly prototyping and physical testing processes to evaluate design alternatives.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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