Research on the Breaking and Tearing Strengths and Elongation of Automobile Seat Cover Fabrics

The automotive industry is a major customer of the technical textiles market. In this industry, seat covers are the most important application area of technical textiles. As the customer demands increase and competition among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) becomes more intense, the test standards for technical textiles are gradually being raised and becoming more thorough. Higher breaking and tearing strengths and breaking elongation are specifications required for advanced seat covers. It is a fact that deficiencies in these specifications have some effect on field returns (the return of failed cars to field service), raising costs and loss of confidence in the product and the producer. This paper investigates breaking and tearing strengths, and breaking elongation performances of the technical textiles used for automobile seat covers. The fabrics used in this research were supplied from seat cover fabric manufacturers who produce these fabrics for multinational automotive companies. The data obtained from the tests are evaluated statistically. The results indicate that flat woven and woven velour seat cover fabrics are the best in terms of breaking and tearing strength performances. Circular knitted automobile seat cover fabrics give the greatest elongation measures.