Aircraft Passenger Seat Assembly With Flexible Back and Webbed Basin
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft passenger seats face a challenge in balancing comfort and weight reduction, often resulting in uncomfortable and heavy seats due to competing requirements of passenger comfort, weight constraints, aesthetics, safety, and crashworthiness, with existing solutions failing to adequately address the variety of human shapes and behaviors.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a lightweight flexible composite frame for the backrest, a high-performance fabric or foam support system for thoracic and lumbar regions, a lightweight seat bottom with a hollow structure and modular webbing, and adjustable armrests made of lightweight engineering materials, along with a simple construction to maximize comfort and structural performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If padding is removed from cushions to reduce seat weight, then the seat becomes lighter, but the resting surfaces become harder and trap heat, causing quick muscle fatigue
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the cushion material by using viscoelastic foam with specific density ranges (1.2-2.4 pcf) and ILD ranges (8-18). This allows the cushion to provide adequate softness and comfort while maintaining lighter weight compared to traditional high-density foams. The viscoelastic properties enable the material to adapt to different body shapes and pressures, reducing heat trapping and improving comfort.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite material structures by combining viscoelastic foam with breathable fabric covers and integrating them with the seat frame. The breathable fabric composite allows air circulation to reduce heat buildup, while the viscoelastic foam provides pressure distribution. This composite approach achieves both weight reduction and comfort improvement simultaneously.
2Weight of moving object
If cushioning surfaces are made thinner to reduce weight, then the seat becomes lighter, but the passenger comfort deteriorates due to increased hardness and heat trapping
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies using breathable fabric materials for the cushion cover with defined porosity characteristics. These porous fabrics allow air permeation and circulation through the cushion, preventing heat buildup and moisture accumulation. This enables thinner cushion designs to maintain comfort by actively managing thermal and moisture environments, rather than relying solely on thickness for comfort.
3Ease of operation
If traditional foam materials are used for passenger comfort, then comfort is improved, but the seat weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent fundamentally changes the material selection parameters by specifying viscoelastic foam with optimized density (1.2-2.4 pcf) and ILD (8-18) ranges. These parameter specifications enable the foam to provide superior comfort characteristics including pressure distribution and adaptability to body shapes, while maintaining significantly lower weight compared to traditional high-density foams that would be required to achieve similar comfort levels.
Data Source
AI summary
Lightweight passenger seats that are especially adapted for use in aircraft cabins. The seats will include a seat back and a seat bottom having a basin which defines a recessed central interior space, a plurality of straps having opposed ends connected to respective upper edge regions of the basin so as to be positioned under tension over the recessed central interior space; and a cover cushion covering the straps and connected to the basin. The seat back may be connected at opposed sides thereof to upright support members adjacent a lumbar region thereof so as to establish an upper region of the seat back above the lumbar region which is capable of being resiliently flexed between upright and rearwardly inclined positions.