Nowadays, there are more and more regulations regarding the emissions of greenhouse gases. The automotive sector is directly affected by new standards enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in America and by European regulations in Europe that are forcing car manufacturers to produce more efficient cars. Different ways exist to increase the efficiency of a car and thus reduce the CO2 emissions. One known strategy to improve fuel economy in vehicles is by weight reduction. Consequently, car manufacturers are seeking out new companies that can supply them with lighter car components. Here is where VA Automotive enters the picture, as a car seat manufacturer that is willing to improve their product by reducing the weight of its various components. This study deals with the development of a new recliner design that demonstrates improvements in terms of weight, size and performance compared to the current solution used at VA Automotive. A common product development methodology has been developed to reach the final recliner design which went through the following steps. First of all, a benchmarking technique was adopted to gather as much data as possible from the competitors’ products. Then, a list of target values for the product specifications was defined as a guideline for the development of the product. The next step was to generate several concepts of recliner’s mechanism that were suitable to improve the design from VA Automotive. After that, a Pugh decision matrix was used to select the best alternative between the concepts generated previously. The optimal concept was further developed by generating four design alternatives that were analyzed in terms of manufacturing, assembly, weight and size by using the Lucas DFMA method. Finally some simulations were run for one of the designs in order to check the structural performance of the mechanism and prove this way that the new recliner design meets the requirements. When comparing the new design alternatives with the design from VA Automotive, it was noticed that all the new designs except one presented a lower manufacturing cost index. Moreover, for all of the alternatives of the new recliner design, the weight was reduced by more than 56% compared to the recliner used at VA Automotive. Finally, by means of FEM simulations it was demonstrated that by choosing the right material the new recliner design was able to meet the structural requirements.

The goal in my bachelor thesis has been to create a multifunctional furniture, a product in which the form has followed the function to allow the user variation for the body and practical functions. The purpose of this project has been to encourage reduction of unnecessary furniture within compact living spaces and instead offer better solutions to practical multifunctional furniture. In my research phase for this project I studied different forms of multifunctional furniture on the market as well as carried out different observational studies of student living and how students generally use their furniture. The first being various visits to different student rums and apartments. The other being a closer study at Malmstens school in which I allowed students to create their own space and interact with the furniture to study how the students used the furniture and how the students sat in the furniture. A basic, yet crucial, survey about multifunctional furniture was sent out to gather information on what people do at home and what type of furniture people prefer if they were to live in a compact space. The research gathered led to the next phase of the project in which many different sketching techniques, both 2d and 3d, resulted in a multifunctional furniture which offers variation within sitting and practical use. As a result of the analysis a furniture prototype will be built and shown at Malmstens Spring Exhibition and Vallastaden Living and House Society Exhibit in September 2017. / I detta examensarbete har målet varit att skapa en multifunktionell möbel, en produkt där form följer funktion som erbjuder variation både för kroppen och för praktiska funktioner. Syftet med att uppnå detta mål är att uppmuntra till minimering av antalet möbler på en begränsad yta och därmed bidra till minskad konsumtion och erbjuda fler praktiska lösningar i hemmet. Jag vill upplysa om och uppmuntra tanken att möbler kan passa människans flexibla behov. En insamlingsetapp av information från studiebesök, deltagande observationer, en enkät och en omvärldsanalys har lett till en god uppfattning om hur människor kan möblera i framtiden. Under dessa observationsstudier besöktes olika former av studentboende med fokus på att observera förhållande mellan hur möbeln användes och placeras i rummet. I den andra studien som ägde rum på Malmstensskolan skapades ett påhittat rum som fick inredas av olika studenter för att se vilka funktioner möbeln användes till och hur studenten rörde sig i sina möbler. Undersökningen har lett till en omfattande skissprocess med olika skissmetoder. Resultatet är en multifunktionell möbel som ger variation för både sittande och praktiskt användning. Utifrån detta examensarbete tillverkas en prototyp som ska ställas ut vid Malmstens Vårutställning 2017 och vid Vallastaden Bo- och Samhällsexpo 2017.