Technical Resources

Table of Contents

1. Human Engineering and Ergonomics Standards

At present, Human engineering and ergonomics are critical considerations in designing military seats to ensure maximum comfort and reduced fatigue.

2. Industry safety regulation

Automotive regulations have long served as a reference in military seats designs. Today’s military seating solutions should not only protect against anti mine and IED’s events encountered in the field but also should comply with civil safety regulations as dictated by ECE and FMVSS.

3. FMVSS – Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

The following documents define the main standards as defined by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for requirements of seating and seatbelts design

4. ECE Regulations (World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations)

The following documents define the main standards as defined by the European ECE regulations for requirements of seating and seatbelts design.

4.1 Vehicle Categories

The EU regulation has divided the vehicles into several categories which impact the test criteria that applies to each category.

Category M

vehicles with at least four wheels designed for the carriage of passengers.

  • Category M1: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers and comprising no more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat.
  • Category M2: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers, comprising more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat, and having a maximum mass not exceeding 5 tones.
  • Category M3: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers, comprising more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat, and having a maximum mass exceeding 5 tones

Category N

vehicles with at least four wheels designed for the carriage of goods.

  • Category N1: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of goods and having a maximum mass not exceeding 3,5 tones.
  • Category N2: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of goods and having a maximum mass exceeding 3,5 tones but not exceeding 12 tones.
  • Category N3: Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of goods and having a maximum mass exceeding 12 tones.

4.2 ECE Safety Regulations

The following documents define the main standards as defined by the European ECE regulations for requirements of seating and seatbelts design

5. Comparison between US and EU Safety regulations

AAPC-ACEA Non-Exhaustive List of Candidate Regulations for Mutual Recognitions

6. Human body survivability and Bio-mechanical aspects

NATO has conducted extensive research and analysis regarding the human body survivability in cases of extreme accelerations derived from crashes, under belly explosions and other high impact scenarios.

6.1 TR-HFM-090 – Protection of vehicle occupants against landmine effects

The following document provides an extensive analysis of the effects of the IED and land mine effects on the human body and serves as a valuable reference document for the analysis of the performance of vehicle blast protection.

6.2 RTO-EN-HFM-113 – Biodynamics in Aircraft accidents

The effects of high impacts accelerations have been thoroughly studied and investigated in the aviation industry. Many of the lessons learned in aircraft crashworthiness and survivability studies, have served as a reference for investigating the performance of blast attenuation systems.

7. Terms