Project description
Lightweight composite car seats are about to hit the road
Whether in the air, on the sea or on the ground, the transport industry is committed to reducing vehicle weights to cut fuel consumption and emissions. Even with electric vehicles, lighter is better as it transfers to longer distances on one charge. While most research is focused on body materials or engine weight, the UK SME Gordon Murray Design has come up with a novel way to slash the weight of cars – a composite seat that weighs almost a third less than conventional ones and the manufacturing technology for cost-effective mass production. The EU-funded PAMPAS project is evaluating the company’s iStream production process for its composite iStream seats on the road to commercialisation.
Objective
The automotive industry is being encouraged to cut emissions from cars, with OEMs threatened with penalties if they do not meet targets. One way of achieving this is to make vehicles lighter. Reducing the weight of a small family car by 5% can lead to increased fuel efficiency of 2% . Conventional car seats can weigh up to 35kg each , whereas Gordon Murray Design’s composite iStream® seat weighs only 12kg, potentially a huge weight saving. The manufacture of composite car seats has traditionally been expensive due to their unsuitability for mass production but the revolutionary iStream® manufacturing process overturns this convention, utilising a composite sandwich panel structure and metallic frame combination, which costs no more than a conventional car seat.
Reducing the weight is also of benefit to electric vehicles (EVs) as well as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, lower weight means lower emissions and for EVs it means greater range for a given battery size or a smaller (cheaper) battery for a given range, both of which are very desirable for customers.
The principal objective of the The Productionisation of Advanced Modular Passenger Autonomous Seating (PAMPAS) project is to fully understand all aspects of the industrialisation process to ensure the already technically proven seating system can enter into series production with a commercially viable proposition.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering composites
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering automotive engineering
- social sciences economics and business business and management business models
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
KT228DY LEATHERHEAD
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.