Abrasive Elements and Abrasion Resistance Tests for Car Seat Upholstery

The weight of textile components in automobiles is expected to rise to 35 kg by 2020, and the average lifetime of a vehicle is about 12 years. Car seats are the most important part of the interior decoration, and polyester is the most widely used material in car seat covering. Abrasion resistance tests are used to quantify the duration of car seat upholstery in normal usage, and this is one of the most important requirements. Several testing methods, standards, and car producer specifications have been developed to define the abrasion resistance of specified materials, and pre-tests have been taken to identify parameters for this research. The objective of this study was to compare three abrasion tests with different abrasive elements using car seat upholstery structures. Comparison among abrasion testers and abrasive papers shows statistically significant differences. The relationship between weight loss and abrasion cycles can be modelled by regression equations. INTRODUCTION The automotive industry is one of the largest single markets for technical textiles. An average family car uses over 33 m of textiles (about 14-20 kg), and about 15 to 18 m (between 5 to 8 kg) are used in the passenger compartment. The car seat, as an important component, has major usage, between 6 and 8 m [13]. Textiles for automobiles must satisfy very strong requirements for both security and competing demands. The seat constitutes the most important part of the interior decoration. Its security and comfort are studied by automobile manufacturers, seat makers, fabric producers, and textile research centers and universities. Polyester is the most widely used material in car seat coverings; and woven, weft knitted (circular machine), and warp knitted fabrics (tricot and double needle bar machine) are the most used fabric structures [4]. Test methods and standards used for quality assessment are international or institutional standards, such as BS, DIN, ASTM or SAE. Many attempts have been made to harmonize these standards. Special company standards in the automotive industry are used as well to identify the expected characteristics of car seat fabrics. However, performance standards and test methods can differ considerably between these companies, and acceptable standards for one producer can be completely unacceptable for another. Therefore, the testing laboratories must be equipped with different devices to measure the same property. Table I shows a summary of the requirements for car seat classification, taking into account their relative importance. As shown, the most important physical requirements are abrasion and pilling resistance. TABLE I. Requirements on cover materials for car seat (“+“means important and “++“very important [5].