The same seat can be called up by three different rulebooks. That is why one test system is usually specified against several standard numbers at once.
Buyers searching for seat test equipment usually arrive with a standard number, not a machine type. In practice a single seat programme is governed by several of them at once.
The three families
- GB — Chinese national standards. Our published seat equipment cites GB 15083-2006 for seat system strength, GB 14167-2013 for safety-belt anchorage, and GB 13057-2003 for seat strength on buses.
- ECE — UNECE regulations. The same equipment cites ECE R17 for seats and head restraints, R80 for bus seats, R14 for safety-belt anchorages and R21 for interior fittings.
- FMVSS — US federal motor vehicle safety standards. The seat system strength system cites FMVSS 207; the body structure range cites FMVSS 216a for roof crush resistance and FMVSS 214 for side impact protection.
And the OEM development standards on top
Manufacturer standards appear alongside the statutory ones in the published descriptions — for example the German Volkswagen EP development standard for seat system and safety-belt anchorage strength, GMN 1472TP for seat ingress / egress durability, GMW 14604 for headrest adjustment durability, and Chinese OEM standards such as QC/T 740 and QJ/GAC 1250.026.
Why one rig covers several of them
The differences between these rulebooks are largely differences in the load level, the load application point and the sequence. A rig whose cylinders are controlled individually, whose preload is set per axis and whose load can be held to a set time covers that variation without being rebuilt for each standard.