Benchmarking study of automotive seat track sensitivity to manufacturing variation

A benchmarking study is presented on the performance of automotive seat track profiles according to their sensitivity to manufacturing variation. Variation in rail geometry affects the elastic track preload and consequently the rolling effort of the track assembly. Rolling effort must be precisely controlled to achieve customer performance targets. Two benchmarking parameters are relevant to rolling effort: variation in bearing clearance and variation in bearing contact force. These were assessed using worse-case tolerance analysis of CAD data, and numerical analysis, respectively. Significant variation in performance was identified for the selected track profiles, which include commercially available designs and proposed concepts. The benchmarking approach demonstrated in this work provides a way of rapidly assessing the relative robustness of automotive seat track designs subject to manufacturing variation. The outcome assists automotive manufacturers to apply a systematic approach to automotive seat design based on a robust design evaluation of alternative embodiments.