Having benefited from the comfort and safety of Ullman seats for decades and as recently as a fortnight ago, it is a pleasure to confirm the company's selection as the best. These seats certainly make travel in fast vessels in any kind of choppy or rough seas immeasurably safer and more pleasant than without them.
Most of our readers would be familiar with stories of high-speed voyages before Ullman seats became more widely available. Such voyages could be both uncomfortable and dangerous. Injuries and severe headaches were just some of the problems endured. Fortunately, Ullman Dynamics' seats has put an end to such problems.
"It is well known worldwide that our seats provide better impact protection and higher comfort than any other," Ullman Dynamics CEO Carl Magnus Ullman told Baird Maritime. "Our seats have always offered better performance and higher quality than those of our competitors. This is also why we can provide many years of warranties."
Ullman explained that the company's seats were developed based on medical science to protect occupants from injury. Also, the seats' design means operators will not have to worry about servicing or maintenance throughout the items' lifetimes, which in turn means spare parts need not be kept in stock.
"Designing a really well-functioning mechanical suspension is necessary, but that is not enough. To protect people from injury, one needs to understand the human anatomy, biomechanics, and the injury mechanisms causing impact-induced injuries onboard high-speed boats."
Ullman added that the suspension technology therefore needs to be optimised to conform to human reflex-based protective muscular response and to biomechanics to secure postural stability.
"Other suspension systems are built on scissor pallets of linear guides, which may be pipe-in-pipe or rails-and-cars. Such systems can move only in one direction and not absorb any lateral impact forces. It is well-known that the lateral forces in these impacts are the most dangerous.
"Single direction suspensions meanwhile can lock up when exposed to impacts with lateral components. This makes them ineffective when the impacts are not perfectly (vertical) perpendicular to the deck, and the jamming can even cause overboard ejections."
The Ullman three-dimensional suspension system mitigates impacts from all directions. Due to the Leaflex-technology, Ullman Dynamics' suspension systems are both progressive and friction-free. They also synergise with the human body, both in movement and resistance. Also, since the Ullman Suspension system has separate spring- and dampener systems, dedicated dampers (without springs) can be used.
"Other systems have coil springs or air springs, which often leak and need repeated pumping to re-pressurise," Ullman added. "When this is not done, they get even more dangerous. The operators need products that just work."
Ullman said several independent scientific studies have repeatedly proved the effectiveness of the technology in protecting people over the years.
"To date, we still have zero injuries reported on operators using an Ullman seat. This is unique in the industry."
The company introduced new products in 2021 in response to customer demand for additional seats in their boats.
"We have new seats that can be stacked tighter," Ullman told Baird Maritime. "We will also be releasing a brand-new, single-lever track release system that allows the seats to be secured onto standard cargo tracks within seconds. After they are unlocked, the seats can slide along the track or be lifted off completely."
The company has also achieved considerable weight savings on parts such as composite handles instead of steel and more effective lamination technologies.
"We are growing just as fast as we want to while staying in full control of the quality of products and processes," said Ullman, explaining his company's focus during 2021 and the current year. "Growth per se has never been a goal for us, however. For us, the most important thing is to give the end-user the best products that keep delivering the best performance year after year without the need for servicing, repairing, lubricating, or pumping."
Ullman said the marine seating industry will continue to be driven by customers' increasing demand for improved safety.
"Customers will ask for more, and that will require seats that are proven to protect people from injury and seats that last longer, with warranties to back them up. Customers will also want seats that don't require operators to adjust them up, seats that are lighter and stronger, and seats that do not corrode or break, protecting people from injury regardless of the sea state."
