Are you sitting comfortably?

The aesthetic use of LED lighting technology is increasingly being employed to improve passenger comfort inside today's aircraft interiors. Mike Richardson discovers how these innovations are helping to keep passengers on the edge of their seats! To meet the growing passenger trend for customised lighting products that provide improved levels of comfort and help to enhance their flying experience, aircraft interior designers are increasingly sitting up and taking notice of the latest LED innovations that enable regular flying passengers to control a multitude of functions in first and business class suites.

Therefore, today's passenger seat electronic control systems now need to incorporate a similar look and feel to the kinds of consumer-led electronic features that we normally enjoy in the comfort of our own environment, such as the latest mobile phones, MP3 players and gaming consoles.

Specialist electronics engineering company, Wessex Advanced Switching Products (WASP) designs and manufactures an extensive range of passenger control units and suite control units (PCUs/SCUs) for the aerospace industry. From simple membrane-based products to sophisticated LCD-based, menu driven and touchscreen-based suite control systems, the company's products utilise custom machined metal and moulded plastic keypad switching systems, plus the latest electronic capacitive-based sensing technology with fully programmable colour LCDs and multi-layer menu driven graphics.

Typical lighting control units incorporate the latest LED technology, multi-colour variations, variable lighting intensity, low voltage/low power requirements, localised control via separate light control units or through PCU/SCU units independent of aircraft power. The units comprise a slim, low profile construction and include enhanced features such as light diffusion.

WASP designs and manufactures specialised seating controls starting with the procurement of raw materials, as well as production processes such as punching, pressing, screen printing, laser cutting, and PCB and enclosure assembly. The recent introduction of fused deposition modelling equipment enables the company to create accurate models of the unit for customers to see and handle at the pre-production stage.

Illuminating the way we fly

As one of the leading lights in the development of innovative LED-based products for reading lights, mood lights, wash lights and customised lighting products for customer-specific applications, WASP products are featured as standard in many first class and business class seats of the world's leading airlines, while current projects include the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787.

“We focus on seat lighting and provide an extensive range of products for passenger control units and seat control units right through to highly LCD-based, menu driven, touchscreen-based suite control systems,” begins WASP's managing director, Roy Middleton. “This covers niche areas of first and business class cabin interiors and involves mood, wash, ‘puddle' and reading lighting applications. Many airlines now term these niche cabin seating products as ‘super first class' because they wish to differentiate them from typical standard products.

“Mood lighting involves the innovative ways in which we can include aesthetically and ergonomically designed touch pads and controls within the seating environment to improve the look and feel of the product and promote an enjoyable flying experience. Through mood lighting, we can create localised ‘puddles' of light which help to set a tone of sophistication and enhance the experience in making the passenger see that the extra cost of such a seat is value for money. Airline operators are desperate to win repeat business from their higher end customers, so it's important they do everything possible to create an enjoyable and relaxing trip.”

More for less

Middleton feels that the interior designer wants to add increasingly more ‘bells and whistles', and because LEDs are now offering more design freedom to do many things that were not previously possible, all manner of LED-based lighting designs are appearing in the passenger's seat environment. However, current financial considerations mean that the pressure of cost reduction activity can still create a few headaches for both designers and manufacturers alike.

“Depending on the application, LEDs can be small, discrete and help keep the panel design's thickness to a minimum which in turn helps reduce its weight,” he continues. “We have to take the designer's aspirations and turn them into tangible features that can be manufactured - and satisfy aviation regulations at the same time. Our technical challenges are set by the designer and we always strive to provide a solution that satisfies the criteria they set.”

Once the airline approaches an aircraft interior design house, WASP is invited to bid for the contract and engage with the designer to decide on the best way to turn the design into reality and agree where within the seat's construction the control or lighting product should be located. WASP is then tasked with the job of taking the A surface data, i.e. the basic outer shape of the housing or enclosure, and transforming it into a ‘real' product.

“Designers often have very specific requirements, so we need to consider many aspects, such as providing a reduced footprint, longer lifecycles to minimise maintenance and repair, satisfying thermal management issues by offering backlit LED solutions and low power levels which offer environmentally friendly ‘power save' and ‘power off' modes to reduce energy consumption,” he confirms.

“For the PCU, we prefer to provide a lighting solution that ‘throws' as much light as possible using the lowest number of LEDs. Normally, we use between four and eight LEDs to illuminate a typical control panel. However, weight reduction is always a key factor and often there are financial penalties imposed for every kilogram a seat goes over the agreed weight. To minimise this weight even further, we can use capacitive switch technology to provide a flat design that utilises near field technology (NFT) and relies on the close proximity of the passenger's touch. It's all part of bringing this kind of everyday consumer electronics technology into the cabin seat.”

For passenger control units, WASP's PCU and SCUs utilise an aesthetic and ergonomically designed handheld LCD display unit which can store all the information you would expect to see in the airline's backseat brochure, such as a destination guide, safety requirements and duty free services, plus seat control options like lumbar support and massage, personal lighting applications, games and Internet access.

“To win repeat business, airline seat designers are continually focusing their attention to detail by ensuring passengers will want to return and fly with the airline again and again,” concludes Middleton. “They feel that by including an ever-increasing range of innovative features, it will help improve the ‘wow' factor for any passenger entering their cabin.”

www.waspswitches.co.uk