Case Studies

Aerospace Arm-Pan Assembly

Highlands Diversified Services, Inc. launched an aluminum stamped arm pan assembly for the world's leading manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products and the world's leading distributor of aerospace fasteners and consumables, assisting them in attaining the Industry's Lightest Weight Main Cabin Seating Platform. Their activity wins them Launch Awards from Nine Airlines and Leasing Companies. HDS worked diligently with the aerospace company for a period of 2 years to assist in design for manufacturing that could be produced by means of a progressive stamping and metal joining via robotic spot-welding. During this endeavor HDS developed the stamping dies, weld fixtures as well as the robotic welder requirements to assure consistent quality would be delivered to our customer.

The new patented main cabin seating platform, the industry's lightest full-featured seat, has been selected by nine airlines and leasing companies. These launch awards are initially valued in excess of $250 million, and are for economy class programs in new-buy aircraft. Deliveries are expected to begin during the latter part of 2010.

The new seat platform utilizes advanced proprietary technologies that significantly reduce cost of ownership, simplify maintenance and increase overall passenger living space. The cost of ownership savings is a direct result of a 15 percent weight savings over the lightest seat on the market today, achieved through increased use of composites, an integrated lightweight comfort suspension system and a new design methodology that reduces parts by more than 25 percent.

Airlines want to reduce seat weight without sacrificing comfort and over time, our customer believes this has the potential to become the new industry standard for main cabin seating.