Seat Mounts

[CAPiTA]

hello,

i am designing an anatomic carbon fiber seat for a college formula sae team and i am trying to come up with the best way to mount it to the chassis (space frame).

i noticed on several photos of f1 seats that there are 8 or so plastic buckles (the kind that you might find on a piece of luggage) around the edges of the seat. i assume that these are what hold the seat to the chassis, but it seems like that wouldn't be enough. even with the weight of the driver and his safety belts, the seat could still wiggle or rotate slightly. are these buckles all that holds the seat in?

thanks to all who reply.

[bernard]

hello,

i am dei noticed on several photos of f1 seats that there are 8 or so plastic buckles (the kind that you might find on a piece of luggage) around the edges of the seat. i assume that these are what hold the seat to the chassis, but it seems like that wouldn't be enough. even with the weight of the driver and his safety belts, the seat could still wiggle or rotate slightly. are these buckles all that holds the seat in?

I highly doubt that the buckles are plastic. Think about it. The car crashes into the wall at 150 km/h, and the seat sits firmly in the chassis. Even when the drivers weight is strapped to it. Were they plastic the driver would have swung right out of the car along with his seat( which incidentally i think is what happened in Gilles Villeneuve's fatal acident ) I recon they too are made of carbon fibre. If they are what really secures the seat to the chassis. But i would think there are at least a few screws involved, or at least you should add them, regarding the safety of the driver. Strapping his seat down with plastic buckles is like placing a timebomb in his car.

[Guest]

considering the Driver is strapped to the car by his seatbelts and the seat is atight fit to the car and the driver,you don ´t need much to secure the seat to the car.
The buckles are as faras Iknow for reasons of extraction of the driver complete with the seat in case of severe accidents.

[Monstrobolaxa]

The guest is right.....sometimes after accidents or problems during a practice season (at least whan they used the T-car without any penalty) you'd see the driver leaping out of the car and taking his seat back to the pit lane with him....

[bernard]

I thought the driver was strapped to the seat, but yes, now that I think about it, it makes a lot more sense to attach him directly to the car instead.

[Reca]

Hi CAPiTA, welcome.

The technical rules are usually the first place to look for an answer to this kind of questions :

14.8 Seat fixing and removal :
14.8.1 In order that an injured driver may be removed from the car in his seat following an accident, all cars must be fitted with a seat which, if it is secured, must be done so with no more than two bolts. If bolts are used they must :
- be clearly indicated and easily accessible to rescue crews ;
- be fitted vertically ;
- be removable with the same tool for all Teams and which is issued to all rescue crews.
14.8.2 The seat must be equipped with receptacles which permit the fitting of belts to secure the driver and one which will permit the fitting of a neck support.
14.8.3 The seat must be removable without the need to cut or remove any of the seat belts.
14.8.4 Details of the tool referred to above, the belt receptacles and the neck support may be found in the Appendix to these regulations.

[Steven]

with all respect to those regulations, I don't think you should look at those when you are invesigating new safety things.
If you invent something more safe than the existing system, and you can extensively prove that by crashtests and other methods, the FIA will be quite fast to change the rules.

[Reca]

I wasn’t suggesting to CAPiTA the best method to adopt, I was just answering his question that was related with the current F1 seats :

i noticed on several photos of f1 seats that there are 8 or so plastic buckles [...] are these buckles all that holds the seat in?

[McLaurin]

with all respect to those regulations, I don't think you should look at those when you are invesigating new safety things.
If you invent something more safe than the existing system, and you can extensively prove that by crashtests and other methods, the FIA will be quite fast to change the rules.

I couldnt agree more. they will allways go for more safety, which is good