Accelerated Testing for Durability Performance of Automotive Seating Foam

The evaluation of durability performance of automotive seating foam by severe in-service studies is necessarily long and costly. Accelerated laboratory tests are required that accurately predict durability performance over the range of environmental conditions and treatments a foam will encounter in service. This paper compares different foam types in a variety of static and dynamic tests currently used in the industry. It shows that static tests conducted at high temperature and high humidity do not correlate with dynamic laboratory tests nor with performance in real seats. This is attributed to chemical degradation and evidence for this is provided. Also described are the results obtained in dynamic tests modified so as to amplify differences in durability; this as a first step towards the development of an improved accelerated durability test.