Modular Passenger Seat Assembly for Flexible Cabin Layouts

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing passenger seating arrangements for vehicle cabins are limited to specific layouts, restricting airline choice and requiring significant development costs from seat manufacturers for new layouts, while offering limited customization and flexibility.

Innovation Solution

An assembly set comprising interchangeable seat units with congruent dimensions and common components, allowing for various configurations and layouts by combining different seat assemblies, shell structures, armrests, privacy dividers, and tables, enabling easy customization and optimization of passenger density and comfort.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If specific set layouts are sold as fixed configurations, then manufacturing and installation are simplified, but customization options for airlines are limited and development costs increase for new layouts

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemanufacturing simplicityVSAvoidlayout customization
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The seating arrangement is divided into modular seat units that can be independently configured. Each seat unit is a standardized module that can be assembled in different patterns to create various layouts, allowing airlines to customize cabin configurations without developing entirely new fixed layouts for each airline.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The standardized seat units are designed to serve multiple layout configurations. The same basic seat unit module can be arranged in different patterns (e.g., 2-2, 2-3, 3-3 configurations) to create different cabin layouts, making the seating system universally adaptable to various airline requirements without needing airline-specific custom designs.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Adaptability or versatility

If brand new layouts are developed from scratch, then unique cabin configurations are achieved, but development costs and revision time increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvelayout varietyVSAvoidrevision time
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Standardized seat unit modules are pre-designed and pre-engineered with common dimensions and connection interfaces. This preliminary standardization work is done once, and then these pre-prepared modules can be quickly assembled into different layouts as needed, eliminating the need for time-consuming development of new layouts from scratch for each airline or configuration change.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Adaptability or versatility

If different seat units have varying dimensions, then design flexibility is increased, but assembly complexity and manufacturing costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveseat configuration flexibilityVSAvoidassembly complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

All seat units in the system are designed with homogeneous dimensions and standardized connection interfaces. This uniformity in size and interface design simplifies assembly procedures and reduces manufacturing complexity, while the flexibility to arrange these identical modules in different patterns provides sufficient configuration flexibility for various cabin layouts.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #33Homogeneity

Data Source

PatentEP3768596B1Assembly set for a passenger seating arrangement, using of the assembly set for a vehicle cabin and a passenger seating arrangement
Publication Date: 2025.12.31 ELEVATE AIRCRAFT SEATING LLC
  • EP3768596B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3768596B1 patent drawingFigure 2A~2B
  • EP3768596B1 patent drawingFigure 2C~2D

AI summary

The invention relates to an assembly set (1) for a passenger seating arrangement (2) provided within a vehicle cabin (100) comprising at least - a plurality of seat units (M1 to Mn), - wherein each of the seat units (M1 to Mn) are created by components (C) of at least one of a plurality of seat assemblies (S1 to Sn); a plurality of seat shell structures (F1 to Fm); a plurality of armrest structures (A1 to Ai); a plurality of door structures (D1 to Dk); a plurality of privacy dividers (P1 to Pq); and a plurality of table structures (T1 to Ta); wherein the different seat units (M1 to Mn) have a congruent ground plan or identical outer dimensions.