Automotive interior materials immensely enhance comfort, congeniality, and interior aura of automobiles, and customers consider all of these factors while buying vehicles. Hence, the demand within the global market for automotive interior materials has been expanding at the pretext of consumer propensities for better and comfortable driving. Moreover, automotive interior materials also enhance the safety of vehicles as these materials are used in fabricating safety belts/straps, air bags, and other safety aids.
Automotive quality tests have become an indispensable part of the automotive manufacturing process, and these tests help in ascertaining the credibility of automotive manufacturers. In order to pass these tests, vehicles should have high-quality interior and exterior materials, and this also becomes a key reason behind the growth of the global market for automotive interior materials.
The main purpose of flammability testing is to study the effects of flame on materials, such as interior fabrics, seat cushions, seat belts or even structural components such as plastics or foam. Most standards seek to test burn resistance or burn rates of materials on a pass/fail basis.
Standards used to regulate flammability testing include the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 302. (FMVSS 302), US Government 49 CFR 571.302 – Standard No. 302 Flammability of Interior Materials (CFR 571.302) and various independent standards used by industry leading vehicle manufacturers and tier 1 automotive suppliers.
All automotive manufacturers require certification for flammability at the time of product development and most OEMs require annual recertification for each product.A test sample is aligned horizontally and exposed to a small Bunsen burner flame at one edge. The flame is applied for 15 seconds and then pulled away from the sample. The rate of flame travel across the sample is measured between two points. The pass/fail criteria is based on the burn rate across the test sample.