The design of an adjustable seat pedestal focuses on delivering versatility, ergonomic comfort, and durability, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, including automotive, marine, and office seating. The core elements of this design are aimed at providing users with flexibility, ease of use, and the ability to modify seat height, orientation, and position quickly and efficiently.
Table of Contents:
Objective for Adjustable Seat Pedestal Design
The primary objective of this project is to re-engineer the current adjustable seat pedestal design to deliver significant improvements in functionality, usability, and performance. This encompasses three main goals:
Achieve Weight Reduction:
The redesigned seat pedestal aims to reduce overall weight without compromising its strength or durability. A lighter pedestal offers multiple benefits, including easier handling during installation, increased portability, and potentially reduced shipping costs. The design will incorporate modern materials and engineering techniques to achieve this weight reduction. Options such as using lightweight metals (e.g., aluminum alloys), composite materials, or utilizing structural optimizations like hollowed sections, lattice structures, or other innovative geometrical configurations will be explored. The reduced weight must not compromise the pedestal’s ability to support varying loads or affect the balance and stability of the seat.
Maintain Structural Integrity:
While reducing weight, it is crucial that the redesigned seat pedestal maintains or even improves its structural integrity. This includes ensuring that the pedestal can withstand the necessary static and dynamic loads, including the weight of the user and the stresses caused by movement, vibration, and impact. The goal is to preserve its durability and reliability over extended use, ensuring it meets industry standards for safety and performance.
Improve Ease of Attachment and Removal:
The re-imagined seat pedestal should prioritize ease of use, making attachment and removal simple, quick, and convenient. Users should be able to adjust or uninstall the pedestal with minimal effort, ideally without requiring specialized tools. The design will explore incorporating features such as quick-release mechanisms, modular components, or standardized connection interfaces that allow for fast, tool-less assembly and disassembly. By streamlining these processes, the new pedestal will enhance the user experience, reduce installation time, and increase the product's versatility across different seat types and mounting platforms.
Challanges & Needs
Common Bushing Breakage.
Sloppy Fit Between Base and Post.
Post Sticking in Base.
Hard-to-Reach Latch.
Uncomfortable Latch Button.
Outdated Locking Swivel Handle.
Post Bushing Occasionally Comes Out.
Post Prone to Sticking in Base.
Base Mounting Pattern Must Remain the Same as Current Standard.
Post Extrusion Cannot Change from Current Standard.
Base Footprint Cannot Change from Current Standard.
Mounting Pattern on Swivel(s) Must Remain the Same as Current Standard.
Post Diameter Cannot Be Changed.
Post or Swivel Should Be Rotatable (360° Rotation).
Solution and Approach
Control the fit and tolerances.
Improve the locking mechanism.
Identify alternative Bush materials.
Testing.
Fit Between Base, Post, and Swivel.
Compatibility with Stainless Steel and Aluminum Posts.
Provision for “Snap” Mechanism.
Mechanical Interference to Prevent Rotation.
Smooth Rotation of Post and Swivel.
Base Mounting Pattern Consistency.
Corrosion Resistance and Salt Spray Test Compliance.
No Rust, Corrosion, or Discoloration.
Compliance with ABYC H-31 Test Requirements.
Variable Base Plate Sizes for Different Applications.
Material and Finish Options for the Base.
Post Lengths/Heights Variability.
Software's
Fusion 360: Utilized the generative design feature for optimization, exploring multiple design alternatives to reduce weight while maintaining performance.
Using Fusion 360 for Redesigning the Adjustable Seat Pedestal
Fusion 360 is a powerful 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool that integrates multiple design and engineering functions into one platform, making it an excellent choice for the redesign of an adjustable seat pedestal. The software provides advanced modeling, simulation, and generative design capabilities, which are key to optimizing the seat pedestal for weight, strength, and functionality.
Here’s how Fusion 360 can be used to redesign the adjustable seat pedestal:
1. Conceptual Design and 3D Modeling
Parametric Modeling: Fusion 360 allows for parametric design, which means dimensions, features, and relationships between components can be set parametrically, enabling easy modifications. This is critical for the pedestal's adjustable components, such as height and tilt mechanisms, allowing you to adjust designs quickly based on feedback or test results.
Direct Modeling: When working with imported models or iterating design ideas, Fusion 360’s direct modeling feature allows users to push, pull, and manipulate geometry easily. This is useful when modifying existing pedestal designs or experimenting with new forms and structures.
Design Visualization: Fusion 360 provides the ability to render designs in 3D with realistic materials, lighting, and textures. This allows designers to visualize how the pedestal will look, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality, before moving on to detailed engineering and manufacturing.
2. Generative Design for Weight Optimization
Generative Design: One of Fusion 360’s standout features is its generative design tool. For weight reduction, this tool can be leveraged to generate multiple design iterations that meet specific criteria such as strength, material usage, and manufacturing methods.
You can set design constraints, including load-bearing requirements, material choices, and weight limits. The tool will then create multiple optimized designs by exploring countless possibilities, offering lightweight structures without compromising strength.
Lattice structures, hollowing out less critical areas, or incorporating organic shapes that distribute load more efficiently can be achieved through this process, which leads to substantial weight reduction.
Material and Manufacturing Constraints: You can integrate specific materials (e.g., aluminum, carbon fiber, or steel) and manufacturing methods (e.g., 3D printing, CNC machining) into the generative design process. This ensures that the final design is not only optimized for performance but also practical for real-world production.
3. Structural Integrity and Load Testing
Finite Element Analysis (FEA): To ensure the redesigned pedestal maintains the necessary structural integrity, Fusion 360 provides built-in FEA capabilities. With FEA, you can simulate real-world conditions such as load-bearing, vibrations, and impact forces that the seat pedestal might experience in daily use.
The software allows you to apply loads, constraints, and materials to the pedestal model and run simulations to check for stress points, deformation, and failure risks. This ensures the redesigned pedestal can handle various static and dynamic loads without failure.
By identifying weak spots or areas of excessive material, you can refine the design further to achieve the best balance between strength and weight.
4. Design for Ease of Attachment and Removal
Component Design and Assembly: Fusion 360 excels at handling complex assemblies. For redesigning the adjustable seat pedestal, you can create and manage multiple components (e.g., the base, adjustable arm, locking mechanism, mounting plates) as part of an integrated assembly.
This modular approach allows you to simulate how each part interacts with others, ensuring that components fit together seamlessly and function as intended.
You can also design quick-release mechanisms and locking systems that will enable users to attach or remove the seat pedestal with ease. Motion studies in Fusion 360 can simulate how these mechanisms work in action, allowing you to make adjustments for ease of use.
5. Material Selection and Manufacturing Process
Material Library: Fusion 360 provides a comprehensive material library, including properties like density, tensile strength, and elasticity for various metals, plastics, and composites. This helps in selecting the right material for the seat pedestal redesign based on the required weight, strength, and environmental resistance.
The software also allows users to add custom materials, which is useful if you're working with specific alloys or high-performance composites.
CAM Integration for Manufacturing: Fusion 360’s CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) module enables the creation of toolpaths for CNC machining, laser cutting, or 3D printing directly from the model. This integration ensures that the redesigned pedestal can be efficiently manufactured once the design is finalized.
By setting up toolpaths and running simulations, you can ensure that your design is not only optimized for functionality but also for efficient manufacturing with minimal material waste and time.
6. Prototyping and Iteration
3D Printing Prototypes: With Fusion 360, you can quickly move from design to prototyping. By exporting models for 3D printing, you can create physical prototypes of the pedestal or its components for real-world testing. This is particularly useful when refining ergonomics, attachment mechanisms, and testing overall usability.
Cloud Collaboration and Version Control: The cloud-based nature of Fusion 360 enables multiple designers, engineers, or stakeholders to collaborate on the pedestal redesign project in real-time. The software tracks version history, making it easy to iterate and compare design changes.
7. Aesthetic and Ergonomic Enhancements
Ergonomics: Fusion 360’s sculpting tools allow for the creation of smooth, ergonomic shapes for handles, grips, or adjustment levers that improve the comfort and usability of the pedestal.
Aesthetic Design: Using Fusion 360’s rendering tools, you can explore different textures, finishes, and colors to improve the appearance of the pedestal, ensuring it meets market expectations in terms of aesthetics while maintaining its functional properties.
Result
Completely Redesigned the Adjustable Seat Pedestal with required Adjustments.
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