Acro designs, manufactures and ships aircraft seating to airlines around the world. These airlines come to us seeking many things from a shipset of seats – great comfort, wonderful design and the ability to customise to their own brand and requirements. But what they are increasingly looking for are seats that will help them meet reduced emissions targets and a seating supplier that has this requirement at the forefront of their minds and product suite.
Here at Acro, the Series 9 delivers this. It is one of the lightest on the market at 7.5kg per pax and has also been the seat that has spearheaded our work with Aircraft Interior Recycling Association (AIRA).
Thanks to that partnership, 98.83% of the Series 9 seat is recyclable, and AIRA has developed a system for the Series 9 where its components can be tracked, processed and recycled using a unique numerical identification code that will be marked on each of the parts within the seats.
The AIRA-Q system was already developed by AIRA, and Acro became the first seat Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to trial the numerical identification code for traceability for recycling, which has proven to work perfectly.
The success of the system has also been proven during the current dismantling stage of Acro’s test seats that Sheffield-based AIRA is currently working on.
The AIRA recycling codes on the Series 9 seat work as a perfect system for identification, even if they are not currently printed on the separate seating components. AIRA has the Component Recycling Manual (CRM) for the seats, so further material segregation by the recycling code is easy to follow, whether for metal or plastic grades. This method of recycling preserves the value of the materials, making it easier for them to enter the circular economy and closed loop systems in the future.
Due to the success of this collaboration with AIRA, Acro’s Series 3 and 6 seats fall in line with the AIRA-Q system as well.
This initiative is a great milestone for the team at Acro, demonstrating our commitment to creating a true circular economy for our seats, as well as our determination to stand out from the crowd in the aircraft interiors industry, prepared to innovate and adapt to new ways of working.
As an aircraft interior manufacturer, we are in a perfect position to help airlines reduce emissions, increase material traceability and reduce waste at both ends of the manufacturing cycle.
At Acro, we understand that as an industry we have to work collaboratively to create sustainability opportunities, we have to teach new aircraft interior designers that hitting these targets and creating innovative solutions to this issue is a key part of how our business will grow.
We believe our partnership with AIRA will help us improve traceability, increase recycling, and introduce us to new ways of thinking, designing and ultimately manufacturing. Ensuring that we are playing our part in reducing the overall impact of aerospace on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
