Optimal "Belt-in-Seat" : A study to evaluate the optimal positioning of a Belt in a car's frontal seats

Sammanfattning: The world is continuously moving, and so are the life on it. As our society is constantly evolving and the width of human needs are rising, do organization need to provide new solutions that can satisfy our needs. Consequently, every designer is going to meet new challenges whenever the situation calls for it. This is the situation that CEVT’s engineers have found themselves in and the reason as to why this engineering project has become relevant for their industrial development and innovation. The seatbelt designers at CEVT’s Restraints department have encountered a situation where it forces them to change their product as it can no longer be installed in the cars’ B-pillars. The company must investigate alternative positionings with regard to the car's new design criteria in order to recreate or improve the functionalities in both safety and comfort of their seatbelt system. My project objective is to investigate alternative positionings and components that are part of the classic three-point seatbelt system with an aim to ensure good user experience in the area of comfort. By the end of this thesis I ought to have answered the following Mission Statement: “Determine the most optimal positioning and components of the seatbelt system to reduce inertia for a fontal Belt-in-Seat, where the system’s performance should be comparable to the users’ experience from an installation of a seatbelt in a B-pillar.” To establish the best component combination out of the parts delivered from Autoliv AB and secure an optimal placement for the involved parts, have I followed the three-stage process described by IDEO (2015). The Inspiration phase has included a Literature study, benchmarking, analytical assessments of user needs as well as prepared and performed of a test on the seatbelt system. The Ideation phase was focusing on establishing a placement for the system's components through a brainstorming so that it could be mounted in a seat prototype prepared for the user experience tests performed. The last phase, Implementation, consisted of an analysis that was focusing on the feedback received from users of different anthropometry. But also concentrated on summarizing all data collected throughout the project to select the final concept for this assignment.