Brussels – Sustainable foam seating for the air industry has been produced thanks to a two-year partnership funded by the European Commission (EC).
Axyal and PMV Industrie, based in France's Sauvagnon and Bressols respectively, say they have developed a sustainable alternative for flexible foams which comply with aircraft fire resistance requirements and weigh the same as current models.
The partnership’s main objective was to develop a green polyurethane flexible foam for airliner seat cushions formulated with renewable polyols and non-halogenated fire retardants, the report said.
According to Cordis – the EC’s Community Research and Development Information Service - CAO software was used to create two foams - CSI Green PUR (with graphite) and CSI Green PUR-2 (without graphite).
A row of three seats was created with a flexible polyurethane foam without graphite expandable, said the report.
According to the team behind the innovation “this polyurethane system will be easier recycled either by mechanical recycling (grinding) or by glycolyse.”
The assembly of the seating cushions with fire blocking layer, fabric cover and velcro is performed by PMV Industrie – which is based in Bressols.
“The evaluation of comfort performance is good. The properties of resistance to compression, resistance to fatigue are comparable to well-known foams used for airliners seats and also VIP seats,” according to the report.
The comfort of assembled cushions on the seat is evaluated as “good” by the PMV Industrie expert.
