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Safety, Ergonomics and comfort are inseparable concepts and of greater relevance to the full exercise of professional drivers, being the seat, one of the most important components to be considered, when designing their workplace. This work presents initiatives taken by Mercedes-Benz do Brasil Ltda. (MBBras) in partnership with GRAMMER do Brasil Ltda. (Grammer) and Oficio Ergonomia e Design Ltda. concerning the improvement of a SAE Class 8 Heavy-truck Driver Seat. Proposals involved seat design improvement at driver reach and posture, design and constructive characteristics (seat-bottom foam and frame) Upholstery, seat-controls ergonomics and the vibration response, due to the introduction of independent shock-absorbers.

Due to the growing necessity to reduce time for new products development, or even to evaluate the reliability of them, a rationalization tendency of the tests has been observed in the field through more and more representative bench tests in a shorter time and with smaller costs. In the automotive industry, the amount of simulated parameters is always increasing; therefore it is necessary to collect a great number of sign measurements in suspension systems (accelerations, temperatures, strokes and deformations), using prototype vehicles. In the present paper we will present the measurements made in a representative track, where it was possible to analyze the measured signs. In a second step they were compiled and compacted, and finally applied in a one-axial bench test. This procedure permits to get a correlation between field and laboratory results.