New Citroen C3 Features Lightweight Seat Structure

A lightweight seat structure from JSP offering a 2.2kg reduction in weight and increased levels of 'perceived quality' has been launched in Citroen's new C3. Engineers replaced the heavy and costly steel structure with JSP's Arpro, a strong, light and recyclable material. Material properties such as deformation resilience and moulding accuracy enabled Citroen to achieve improved alignment with visual design features such as leather stitching.

Paul Compton, JSP's president and chief executive officer in Europe, said: 'The objective was to create a lighter seat that could achieve excellent crash-test results. 'In prototype form, Arpro reacts in the same way as mass-produced components. 'This allowed us to create applicable parts quickly and without tooling. 'For a very small investment and within a short timeframe, we were able to validate and prove the concept in a real crash test.

'This gave the programme engineers the confidence to back the project for mass production,' he added. Arpro is strong and resilient enough to replace the metal anti-submarining ramp, which is there to help retain rear-seat passengers in their seats in the event of a vehicle collision, contributing to a simpler and lighter vehicle structure. Compared to the previous-generation C3 rear seat, switching to Arpro provided Citroen with a metal weight reduction of 1.79kg.

The balance of the saving is achieved through lower polyurethane content and a simpler fastening system; the latter serves to lower the assembly cost. Perceived quality has also been improved with the new seat design. This latest project follows on from other seating projects with Volvo and Daimler and applications for other global original equipment manufacturers such as interior trim, sun visors and impact protection products.

JSP recently completed a study to highlight the environmental benefits of using lightweight seating cores. The results of calculating a comparative CO2 (global-warming potential) figure for the production of an Arpro seat core show that Arpro delivers an environmental benefit 12 times that of its impact. Assuming a vehicle lifetime of 100,000km, Arpro can enable a reduction in CO2 of 2.65g/km.

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