Automotive Engineering - May 2023 - 34

Sustainability
in strong
supply
Total CO2
e Emissions Makeup
by Scope Fiscal Year 2022
Scope 1 = 2%
Scope 2 = 6%
Scope 3
= 92 %
SCOPE 1
SCOPE 2
SCOPE 3
Product materials BoM accounted for most of Adient's 2022
Scope 3 emissions profile.
Adient calls its 2022 Altair Award-winning UltraThin seat a major shift from
traditional foam and trim seat construction to cushion and back comfort panels
made of recyclable thermoplastic elastomers. The thin design saves cabin
space and can reduce block height up to 45mm while delivering 25kg of carbon
reduction over 12.4% percent of the entire seat, the company claims.
mass, and emissions tradeoffs in the equation. Switching from a steel seat
frame to magnesium, for example, can reduce weight by 40% but cost
and emissions go up considerably, Maddelein said. Innovation by design
is a big factor in sustainability. As an example, Adient's 'sound in seat'
product puts small audio speakers in the seat headrests, which gives better
more personalized sound while reducing the total number of speakers
and wiring in a vehicle, saving about 8 kg (18 lb) on average and cost.
Likewise, designing climate control into the seat reduces HVAC power
demand by cooling the occupant using convection, not conduction.
Epitomizing the importance of product design to sustainability,
Adient's new UltraThin seat features a 100% recyclable thermoplastic
that serves multiple duties. It replaces the suspension in the seat, incorporates
all attachment points for the trim and integrates the vent
and lumbar systems. " The Ultrathin design uses the product itself as
the seat 'basket' and integrates as many components as we can to
eliminate parts for sustainability, " Maddelein explained. " That reduces
cost and time to manufacture, which is my Scope 2. And I can recycle
Ultrathin and put it back into the exact same product at about 40%
cost. " It also reduces the amount of foam in the seat while maintaining
comfort, creating space to increase battery capacity by 3-10%. The
34 May 2023
seat has not yet entered production and has attracted
four OEMs, Maddelein said.
Polyurethane-based foams as used in seat cushions
have long been an R&D focus of seat suppliers, as it is
difficult to recycle and typically ends up as shredder
residue after a vehicle is scrapped. Adient and its suppliers
are studying new chemistries, including industrializing
polyols with recycled CO2 content. In 2019
Adient and Dow jointly developed Specflex, a new
seating low-carbon-footprint foam product.
" Each OEM has a different focus on sustainability for
seats, " Maddelein noted. Ford, for example, believes it
can meet its interiors targets by specifically focusing
on foam and plastics, he noted. Ford is targeting 1520%
renewable plastics and 20% recycled and renewable
foam by 2025 but has not yet provided details.
Sustainable plastics is another area of development at
Adient, whose innovations include new 'soft' materials
such as polyethelenes (PET) replacing hard polypropylenes
(PP) for seatback panels and side valences. " The
plastics industry is stepping up with new blends and fillers,
hemp being a new idea, " Maddelein said. And new
vinyl blends and BIO-polymer rolled goods that give
" premium appearance and lower cost " are replacing
cowhide as OEMs move away from leather.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
BOTH IMAGES: ADIENT
Automotive Engineering - May 2023

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