Investigating the Effect of Fabric and Lamination-Foam Properties on the Air Permeability of Laminated Headrest Fabrics

Abstract

In automotive industry, vehicle seat has been came first to mind at beginning of components that is encounter directly with customer. The customers have many expectations in terms of aesthetics, functionality and comfort from the seats of vehicle. When considering comfort in car seats, backrest, cushion, headrest foam and upholstery are the place of at the top of the list. The seat upholstery in vehicle has a composite structure by including fabric, lamination foam and backing scrim. This composite structure is combined with the foam by using techniques such as traditional method or in-situ technology. In traditional method, the upholstery is trimmed on the product’s foam. In in-situ technology, PU is injected into ready-placed upholstery. The advantage of in-stu technology is to make a perfect trimming for curved foam designs. Especially in headrest, it is preferred concave shapes for distance that effects on comfort and also safety between the driver's head and the seat headrest. In in-situ process, an overflow failure may occure from the upholstery surface of injected foam including polyurethane (PU) with high pressure during process. Overflow failure is not required by main automobile producers for aesthetical aspect and quality point of view. In this study, it is evaluated the effect of lamination foam and fabric in composite structure on overflow failure. In evaluation of overflow behaviour of PU injected foam, fabric types and lamination foam types were tested regarding weight measurement, peeling strength and air permeability. Final products as headrest were obseved by 40x microscop to evaluate the overflow failure.