Rapid manufacturing facilitated customisation

This paper presents a novel method for the production of body-fitting customised seat profiles utilising the following digital methods: three dimensional laser scanning, reverse engineering and Rapid Manufacturing (RM). Seat profiles were manufactured in order to influence the comfort characteristics of an existing ejector seat manufactured by Martin Baker Aircraft Ltd. The seat, known as the Navy Aircrew Common Ejection Seat (NACES), was originally designed with a generic profile. This paper shows the replacement of this profile with shapes captured from fast jet pilots. Pressure mapping of occupied seats, has shown that the pressure distribution under the buttocks can be influenced using body-fitting design and thus comfort is directly affected. The paper discusses the relevance of RM with respect to mass customisation and personalisation and, in addition, recognises RM as a Next Generation Manufacturing System (NGMS) capable of satisfying increasingly diverse products and lower volume production. A generic customisation process is reviewed to identify areas of technical difficulty and key issues in the cost-effective customisation of products.