Optimizing Airplane Seat Frame using Additive Manufacturing

Bastian’s answer to the problem was to combine the best aspects of additive manufacturing and the casting process. Since 3D printing handles the complexity of the lattice geometry far better than other metal-forming technologies, this method was used to print positive molds or patterns of the seat frames in plastic. The patterns were then used to create ceramic molds for casting, which provides a much more affordable way for producing the seat frames in larger quantities.

Bastian teamed up with Jack Ziemba and Paul Leonard of Aristo Cast, a foundry in Michigan. CEO Ziemba and VP Leonard jumped at the chance to collaborate on the project. They even saw an opportunity to further reduce the weight of the seatframe: cast it in magnesium instead of the aluminum typically used for airplane seats. Magnesium casting is complicated, but it’s 35 percent lighter than aluminum, and Aristo Cast was up for the challenge.

Extrapolating out from their prototype seat frames, Bastian teamed up with Pier 9 resident Rhet McNeal and did some eye-popping calculations. At just 766 grams, each individual seat frame is 54% lighter than the conventional 1672g aluminum seats in use today – with the design optimization accounting for 30% of the weight reduction and the magnesium accounting for the other 24%. So if an aircraft maker, say Airbus, were to replace all 615 seats on its A380 jets with the new seat frames and did it across a fleet of 100 planes which typically have a 20-year lifespan, how much money would be saved?

Bastian figures that would save the airline a whopping $206,648,920 based on average jet fuel costs in 2015. Perhaps even more consequential, the fuel reduction also translates into a reduction of 126,000 tons of C02 emissions over that same period. That’s the equivalent of removing 80,000 cars from the road for a year.