FREEFORM™ Seat Technology: A Car Owner’s Dream

(NAPSI)—Automotive seat design has become a crucial consideration for automakers as consumers spend more time in their vehicles, and as interior comfort becomes a major competitive battleground. Every automaker is striving to put a special “signature” on seats, one that conveys their distinct brand values.

To the benefit of both consumers and car makers, mobility technology company Magna International has recently introduced FREEFORM™, an innovative seat trim cover technique that puts seat design on a par with exterior design.

Styling Flexibility

FREEFORM is just what its name suggests: the freedom to achieve nearly endless design possibilities with various shapes and crisp styling lines for striking visual effects.

Explains Eric Kozlowski, the Magna chief engineer responsible for complete seat system advanced research and development, “It’s a great way to differentiate seats. You can do any kind of shape or form. Car makers see this and say, ‘But they told me this was impossible!’ It’s not with FREEFORM.”

FREEFORM is a car maker’s dream because it achieves design details as sharp as 3−4mm radii compared to 20−25mm for traditional cut-and-sew methods.

Sculptural seats that provide “eye candy” are only the beginning.

Quality and Comfort Benefits

“You also get improved production consistency, craftsmanship, high quality and improved comfort with FREEFORM,” Kozlowski said.

Magna’s new patent-pending technology offers improved seat back comfort with highly concave surfaces and contours that hug the human shape. The sculpted, seamless surface offers more than 4 inches of concavity, resulting in added passenger comfort. Back panels have a “soft touch,” with better rear seat knee clearance.

Seats are easier to clean due to the simple construction of the seamless surface and a zipper feature. This lets ride-sharing fleets for example easily clean and swap out seat covers during routine maintenance.

FREEFORM adds to the seat comfort factor with up to more than 4 times the breathability of other molded trim technologies. Because FREEFORM uses hidden tie-downs, traditional trim attachment methods—which can add up to nearly 80 components in a traditional cut-and-sew trim cover—are eliminated.

The technology works on leather, cloth or vinyl so you can still enjoy your choice of seat cover.

The next time you’re looking for a new car, don’t just kick the tires; kick back and try out the seats for class and comfort.

Learn More

For further facts and a look at how free from seats are made, go to www.magna.com.

On the Net:North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.(NAPSI)