As the most important assembly affecting passengers' safe, automobile seat must meet the requirements of the national standard GB 15083-2006 and even stricter company standards. Seat recliner, which is the major subassembly contributes to the strength of seat, should have strong strength to balance the torque transferred from the backrest. In this paper, a finite element analysis of seat recliner was carried on, and an accurate modeling method was put forward according to the results bench test. The results of FEA show that this method rightly reveals the position and tendency of plastic deformation when a high torque was exerted on to the recliner. Applying FEA method in the design process of seat recliner can evidently reduce the time and cost.
