Burscheid, Germany - Automotive seating systems and interiors supplier Johnson Controls showcased innovations ready for series production for the first time at a joint stand at the CLEPA Technology Day 2010, held 27 Oct in Brussels.
Besides modular lightweight seating structures and weight-optimized complete seating systems, the company also displayed its competence in natural raw materials, including natural fibres and what it called "biological foams."
The group's battery division, Johnson Controls Power Solutions, also showed lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric cars and energy storage systems for start-stop vehicles.
"Sustainability is the focus of all innovations at Johnson Controls. The engineers strive to reduce weight, fuel consumption and emissions without compromising on comfort or safety," said a JCI press statement.
CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, held the technology day at the "Autoworld" museum in Brussels, and this year's motto was, "Green technologies for tomorrow's mobility." At the event, leading automotive suppliers meet with high-ranking EU policy makers as well as representatives of national automobile associations.
"Green technologies are an important pillar of our corporate strategy. This is obvious from the innovations we presented in Brussels. We work with natural materials, reduce weight, save on fuel consumption and consider how we can efficiently support our customers' new drive systems. We work everyday on the sustainability of tomorrow's mobility concepts," said Dr Reiner Spatke, vice president Government Relations Europe, Johnson Controls.
As a result, material competence in raw materials and their processing is included in the development process at Johnson Controls from the very beginning. Materials presented in Brussels also bear witness to the company's more than 50 years of experience in processing light natural fibre technologies - EcoCor contains bast fibres while Fibrowood has been developed on the basis of wood fibres.
Johnson Controls' environmentally-friendly compositions extend to seating foam where new formulations have some of the conventional petroleum-based polyols replaced by natural oil polyols (NOPs). The oils come from soya, palm, rapeseed and castor plants. The company notes that the foam produced using such renewable raw materials are "as good for automaker specifications as conventional materials. "
Johnson Controls presented modular lightweight structures and complete seating systems in Brussels, and these contribute significantly to weight savings, without compromising comfort or safety.
An optimised seating solution can be found for almost any vehicle model thanks to the flexible use of the modular lightweight components.
Seating systems from Johnson Controls "satisfy the complex requirements of the globalised automobile industry," the company claims. Applications cover both innovative seating systems -- which have to meet the budget restrictions of the basic models offered in strongly growing emerging markets - as well as high-tech seats for established automobile markets.
The group notes that "aspects such as comfort, spaciousness and safety are driving development in mature markets, along with adherence to fundamental ecological principles such as reducing weight and size and the use of environmentally-friendly and almost 100-percent recyclable raw materials."
PIC: New front seats for the Opel Meriva from Johnson Controls.
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