Aircraft seat covers design trends.

The trend for very light aircraft seat covers is a prime example of design which now takes advantage of manufacturing constraints and turns them into positives by using the qualities of materials rather than disguising them. The design is all about simplicity, designing component parts to perform a function.

Featured as integral parts of the aesthetic, stitching and machined details such as on the armrest are not hidden, resulting in an honest simplicity of form and style. Design ergonomics makes it look extremely comfortable. The design of the seat back creates more legroom for passengers at a typical pitch and, due to its form, transfers unused space from the seat to the passenger behind.

Comfort, robustness and cheapness are all considered with the cost of ownership in mind and gives a huge leap forward in maintainability over current models. Lightness in class and  EASA 16g certified seats under Part 21G Production Organisation approval, meet Boeing and Airbus fire, smoke and toxicity regulations are the objectives.

Modular construction allows any part of a seat to be replaced with a standard Allen key in less than 2 minutes. The seat has fewer than 63 parts per triple, which radically reduces maintenance requirements. The manufacture of components has been kept straightforward to enable them to be sourced locally. Assembly is very simple and very quick, taking only one man hour to assemble each passenger place. This simplicity and ease of assembly makes production scalable to meet variations in demand, resulting in a highly efficient and cost effective production process.

Easy to adopt enhancements like armrest designs, integrated seat back and table mouldings provides customer choice. The seat covers can be designed in unlimited variations to provide each customer with their own version of the seat, not simply resorting to cabin interior colour redesign.