Design and characterization of dynamic textiles with optimized ergonomic comfort for automotive seat upholstery

According to recent studies, user comfort is one of the major challenges faced regarding the vehicle seating. The outer upholstery layer of the seat cover is the main factor contributing to overall user discomfort in the driving environment. This is related to the limitations of the conventional fabrics used. Therefore, alternative textile materials for seat covering are being increasingly sought out. In this work, we propose innovative shape memory-based seat covering fabrics offering improved comfort properties. Shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) multifilament yarns were combined with polyester (PES) yarns to produce three types of woven fabrics having the typical structures used in seat coverings (plain, twill 2/2 and derived twill) using a fixed warp and weft ratio of 3PES:1SMPU. The effects of SMPU yarns on the physical characteristics of the fabrics (thickness, areal weight, yarn density, and tightness) as well as on their mechanical behavior, shape memory effect, thermal comfort, and abrasion resistance under similar usage conditions in car seat covers were investigated. Improvement was observed in the ergonomic comfort with maintained thermal comfort in the presence of SMPU multifilament yarns, with this effect being more noticeable in the twill fabrics. The thermodynamic SMPU-based fabrics used in this study could be potential candidates for use in seat upholstery given the improvement in user comfort over extended use.