At the 2024 Center for Automotive Research Seminar, Altair honored the BMW Group with the prestigious Enlighten Award in the Sustainable Process category. This annual award recognizes groundbreaking innovations in lightweight construction and sustainability within the global automotive industry, focusing on reducing carbon emissions, minimizing resource consumption, and promoting material reuse and recycling.
BMW received the award for its BMW M Visionary Materials Seat, a research project heralded as a precursor to future product development. The project showcased significant achievements in sustainable seat design and lifecycle management, marking it as one of the most forward-thinking developments in the global automotive sector.
The award-winning seat project was a collaboration between BMW M GmbH, the project owner, and BMW Group Designworks, responsible for the design, color, and material concepts, working closely with the BMW design team. The project also involved partnerships with Automotive Management Consulting GmbH, Bcomp Ltd, Gradel Lightweight Sàrl, and Lasso Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH.
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Innovative Themes and Sustainable Design
The BMW M Visionary Materials Seat project focused on several key themes:
- Design for Circularity: Emphasizing the use of plant-based materials, increasing the share of secondary raw materials, and enhancing recyclability at the end of the product lifecycle.
- Lightweight Construction and Functionality: The minimalist design exposes the lightweight seat structure, underscoring its importance as a core component.
- Attractive Product Design: Ensuring the seat is appealing in terms of appearance, quality, and functionality.
Natural Materials and Significant Carbon Footprint Reduction
A core premise of the project was to work within current frameworks while making a leap towards future innovations. The seat incorporates natural fibers, fiber composites, leather alternatives, and algae-based polymers, significantly enhancing sustainability. Notably, the seat’s CO2e footprint is 90% lower than that of a current BMW M carbon bucket seat. This reduction is achieved through ultra-light, robotically-wound fiber composite structures, high recycling rates, and materials of natural origin. The seat also features a lower module complexity and materials grouped by type, facilitating easier recycling at the end of its lifecycle.
Groundbreaking Manufacturing Processes
The project utilized advanced additive manufacturing processes, eliminating the need for support structures, chemical post-treatment, and finishing. This innovation not only reduces energy consumption and resource use but also ensures a streamlined value creation chain with minimal finishing steps.
Insights and Future Processes
Roberto Rossetti, Head of Development Total Vehicle-Lifecycle at the BMW Group, highlighted the project’s learning outcomes. “One of our biggest lessons was balancing our process chain to generate missing primary data. The insights gained provide a solid foundation for continuously improving sustainability and developing innovative solutions for future mobility.”
Falco Hollmann, Innovation Manager Lightweight Design & Sustainability at BMW M GmbH, accepted the award, emphasizing the project’s forward-thinking approach. “This is about more than just substituting materials; it is above all about designing for circularity,” Hollmann noted.
The BMW M Visionary Materials Seat exemplifies BMW’s commitment to innovation in sustainable automotive design and circularity, setting a benchmark for future developments in the industry.
Source: BMW M Visionary Materials Seat Wins 2024 Altair Enlighten Award for Sustainable Process
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