Obtaining a Representative Occupant Load Path for Sliding Ingress Egress Testing

Ingress Egress testing in automotive seating is conducted today using requirements that may not accurately represent an occupant's load into a seat. A programmable robot is used to obtain an ingress egress path, which is cycled several thousand times to evaluate structural damage, trim wear, and contour loss in the seat. Accurately predicting seat wear can prevent warranty issues after production.

A more representative load path was achieved by obtaining human pressure distribution values using a data acquisition system (DAS) to record the ingress egress event. The pressure distribution values were analyzed in conjunction with a video taped recording of the event.

A new load path was developed to improve an existing seat program's load path. The pressure distribution of the current load path was compared with the occupant's pressure distribution. The occupant's load path was broken down into peak pressure events. These events were then programmed into the robot through iterating the pressure data acquisition and analysis trials.