Premier Products Raises the Bar for Safety Standards

Elkhart, Ind. — Premier Products, the leading manufacturer of seating, window glass, and HVAC systems for the luxury bus and van industries, has announced that they recently performed successful air bag deployment testing on their front replacement seat covers for Ford Transit and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles. This makes them the first company in the industry to commit to this type of testing for aftermarket seat covers.

“As a company, Premier is laser focused on designing the most innovative products with an enormous emphasis on safety,” says Eric Alpert, CEO. “When conversion builders of the Transit and Sprinter vehicles upgrade to our seats, they obviously want the driver and passenger seats to match for continuity. Since OEM front seats are now equipped with air bags, we invested heavily in engineering, testing, and equipment to be the first seat supplier to make sure that we were within spec of the factory seat cover air bag deployment.”

Left: OEM seat — Right: Premier Products seat In order to meet the safety standards set in the Sprinter and Transit, Premier engineered their covers to allow the airbag to deploy at the same speed and reliability as the OEMs. Additionally, they invested in a specialized sewing machine solely purposed to stitch the air bag seam on these covers.

“This machine is amazing,” says Alpert. “It records a ‘time stamp’ of every stitch that the machine produces and creates a label that is fixed to the back of this seat cover. This not only provides absolute consistency so that each cover meets the appropriate safety standards, but it also protects Premier, the builder, and the operator from liability that could arise from an air bag deployment.”

Premier recorded the safety testing via high-speed video to capture the precise deployment speed of the OEM and aftermarket seat covers.

“As an operator, you should make sure that you are purchasing vehicles and accessories that protect you and your customers,” adds Alpert. “Premier Products has taken these steps to ensure this.”

Visit premierproducts.net or call 855.881.1800 for more information.

[CD0318]