Altair Case Studies Revolutionizing Airline Seat Testing with IoT: A Case Study on Sicma Aero Seat SA

	Revolutionizing Airline Seat Testing with IoT: A Case Study on Sicma Aero Seat SA Altair

Revolutionizing Airline Seat Testing with IoT: A Case Study on Sicma Aero Seat SA

Altair

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
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. Read More
About 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. Read More
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. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

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

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 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.

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.

Impact #1	The use of simulation in seat testing has revolutionized Sicma Aero Seat SA's operations. It has not only reduced the percentage of seats that initially fail but also provided a better understanding of the failure phenomena when a new seat does fail a test. This has enabled the company to find the best solution faster, avoiding lengthy and costly prototyping and physical testing processes. The use of Altair HyperWorks for static and dynamic seat analyses has given Sicma a distinct advantage over its competition. The quality of the CAE tools, the value-based software licensing model, and Altair’s technical customer support have been key differentiators over other software providers. By continuing to leverage HyperWorks and RADIOSS, Sicma aims to further improve its pass rate, eliminate the need for multiple physical tests and rework, and reduce development costs and time.

Impact #1

The use of simulation in seat testing has revolutionized Sicma Aero Seat SA's operations. It has not only reduced the percentage of seats that initially fail but also provided a better understanding of the failure phenomena when a new seat does fail a test. This has enabled the company to find the best solution faster, avoiding lengthy and costly prototyping and physical testing processes. The use of Altair HyperWorks for static and dynamic seat analyses has given Sicma a distinct advantage over its competition. The quality of the CAE tools, the value-based software licensing model, and Altair’s technical customer support have been key differentiators over other software providers. By continuing to leverage HyperWorks and RADIOSS, Sicma aims to further improve its pass rate, eliminate the need for multiple physical tests and rework, and reduce development costs and time.

Benefit #1	Reduced the percentage of seats that initially fail the safety tests.
Benefit #2	Cut down on certification costs.
Benefit #3	Reduced product development and delivery cycles.

Benefit #1

Reduced the percentage of seats that initially fail the safety tests.

Benefit #2

Cut down on certification costs.

Benefit #3

Reduced product development and delivery cycles.

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Overview

Revolutionizing Airline Seat Testing with IoT: A Case Study on Sicma Aero Seat SA

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit