It's more important than you think to talk about car seats

Speaking of the history of car seats, of course, we must start with the first car in the world. In 1885, Carl Bentz, the founder of the German Mercedes-Benz company, invented the world's first car.

When the car was first introduced, the main structure of the car seat was springs, various fillers, and thick surface coverings. Although it could provide a certain degree of shock absorption and comfort, the seat design did not consider supporting the back and Protection, lack of consideration for safety.

â—† The emergence of seat headrests shows that safety is given attention

With the increase in the speed of automobiles, safety issues have begun to attract everyone’s attention. At this point the car headrest came into being. In 1921, American Benjamin Tschitz invented the head restraint.

But until the late 1960s, head restraints began to appear on some cars in North America. In order to prevent accidental injury in the accident and the cervical spine, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States has imposed mandatory head restraints on all new vehicles since January 1, 1969.

In fact, the role of the principle of the headrest is not complicated, such as rear-end the vehicle is traveling at high speed, then the body will suddenly accelerated forward under the strong impact of the vehicle in front of the driver's head was thrown back under the effect of inertia. Recessive motion over the assembly leads to cervical bone injury or fracture. The headrest can protect passengers' spine from harm.

â—† What are the main focuses of today's car seats?

1 comfort

First of all, the shape of the seat is generally optimized several times so that it can provide adequate support for all parts of the body. In simple terms, it can be attached to the body, for example, the shoulder can provide good support, the head can gently back to the headrest and so on.

However, when the vehicle is in the running process, it is also necessary to consider the seating comfort of the seat, and it is more straightforward to reduce the bumpiness of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving. The car seat needs to consider the resonance frequency and amplitude under dynamic conditions. Therefore, the seat manufacturer needs to improve by adjusting the characteristics of the foam and suspension spring, otherwise it will cause physical discomfort.

In addition, the comfort configuration of car seats has gradually been valued by consumers, such as common seat heating, seat ventilation, seat massage, electric seat adjustment, etc., will become an important factor for consumers to consider when buying a car. .

Small supplements: all for comfort but differences in use

However, it needs to be added that although these configurations are basically the same, they are quite different in their ease of use and effectiveness in actual use. For a simple example, the effect of using two- and three-seat seat heating in use is different.

The ten and six electric adjustments of the seat are completely different in use, and some seats do not even provide the best sitting position for you. Therefore, before buying a car, we need to actually experience or try various comfortable configurations of the car seat.

2 Security

In fact, the safety of car seats can be roughly divided into two parts, which are seat wrapping and safety configuration. First of all, excellent seat wrap can provide a good fixed effect for the people in the car, avoid violent shaking of the body when the driver or traffic accident.

With the development of sensors and other electronic devices, seats are gradually upgraded with respect to safety devices, providing greater safety protection for vehicle personnel during normal driving and collisions, such as active head restraints, seat belt warning devices, and Sleepy vibrating motor, side airbags, etc.

3 environmental protection

In the past, the volatile amines contained in the filling foam produced a strong unpleasant odor, which not only affected the comfort of the passengers in the vehicle, but also caused great harm to health. Therefore, environmental protection is also an important consideration for safety. One of the standards. In terms of materials, the interior filling of the seat can ideally achieve low volatility and no odor.

In the future, the design and development of car seats will be more integrated into various environmental protection solutions, using various green and renewable environmental protection materials, etc., so that it is relatively environmentally friendly for both passengers and the environment in the car. way of doing.

4 intelligence

With the development of future automobiles such as new energy vehicles, vehicle networking and even unmanned vehicles, the intelligentization of car seats will also be the future direction of development. For the increasingly intelligent automotive market demand, the future car seat companies must re-conceive the design of car seats and even the entire interior, and propose seat solutions that are more suitable for new energy vehicles and smart cars.

For example, adding "side-rotation" seat functions to the seat, or a button to flip the seat, and automatically lift the leg brace and footrest, etc., feel like a business class seat aircraft.

â—† Most car seats are mainly produced by major parts manufacturers in the world

In fact, the seats on the car are basically manufactured by several large seat manufacturers, and they can be roughly divided into American, Japanese and European. The US Department mainly focuses on Johnson Controls and LEAR. Johnson Controls is the world's largest automotive seat manufacturer, with absolute advantages in terms of foaming technology and global distribution. Johnson Controls has a strong cash flow, relying on the acquisition of small manufacturers to improve their industrial chain.

From November 2010 to January 2011, Johnson purchased France's Michel Thierry, Keiper's parts business and Recaro's seat business, and CRH, a metal seat supplier for car seats. Lear started with fabrics and its industrial chain integration is very high. Its main customers are GM, Ford and Audi, which account for more than 50% of its revenue.

Japanese manufacturers mainly include TOYOTA BOSHKOU, Tokyo Seat (TS) and TACHI-S. The first two started with seat fabrics, which started with seat springs. Toyota Motor mainly supplies Toyota, and Tokyo seats supply 74% of Honda's car seats. Tai Chi’s main customers are Nissan and Honda.

European manufacturers are mainly Faurecia in France and Brose in Germany. Foglia focuses on mid- to high-end cars. In December 2010, Faurecia acquired the seat comfort segment of Germany's HOERBIGER GmbH. The company's main customers are the Audi A8, A7, BMW 7 Series, Bentley 831/621, Mercedes-Benz S Series, all of which are more than one million luxury cars.

Then the question is why are the gaps between the same supplier's products so great?

Although different brands of different price models may be supplied by the same seat manufacturer. However, they will have more differences in the initial cost and design of the product, the difference is mainly determined by these factors. The simple understanding is that the seat manufacturers will design and produce car seats that meet the customer's needs based on the needs of the main engine plant (car prices).

â—† What is the cost of car seats?

In fact, the seemingly inconspicuous car seats account for a large proportion of the cost structure of automobiles. The average price of a typical car seat is around 850-1050 dollars, the mid-range car is around 1400-1600 dollars, and the high-end is over 2,000 dollars. (From China Market Intelligence Center CMIC)

â—† We do not recommend seat upgrades

The installation of heating and ventilation functions for car seats has become a relatively common modification project. Taking the current popular seat ventilation as an example, it is more prevalent in coastal areas where temperatures are relatively high. However, the level of seat modification and the charging standards are not uniform. The full set of retrofit fees ranges from RMB 2000-6000, and some even exceed RMB 10,000.

As the ventilation and heating of the seats need to be built inside, it is necessary to know that the interior of the car seat itself is very complicated, coupled with various wiring, and long ride compression deformation will certainly increase the security risks

In addition, if the construction is improper, it will also affect the overall vehicle warranty. Because most vehicle sales currently include gravity sensing devices, which are used to monitor whether seated passengers are connected to seat belts, and many front seats have side airbags. Improper modification will affect the use of vehicle-related functions. If the vehicle malfunctions due to improper modification, it may affect the vehicle's warranty.

Conclusion: As a car accessories that are not easily noticeable at ordinary times, car seats are in constant contact with people in the car at all times. Its quality will directly affect our riding comfort, as well as the interior of the car. The safety of people driving. Therefore, in the process of car use and car selection in the future, we should also strengthen the experience and ride of the car seat accordingly. We should pay enough attention to this neglected but important accessory.