Recent advances in the development and characterisation of automotive comfort seating foams

The continuous pressure from the automotive industry for cost saving has resulted in greater demands for car seat weight reduction coupled with improved comfort. This has led to even more in-depth studies on the contribution of flexible polyurethane seating foams to ride comfort and durability. Advanced techniques - such as small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), dynamic creep, vibrational characterisation and finite element analysis (FEA) - have been used to characterise the foams. Seat effective amplitude transmissibility (S.E.A.T.) analysis of comfort seat cushions has made it possible to assess their vibrational performance. Ride comfort and durability of MDI-based cushions has been verified by accelerated field evaluation. As a result of this work, ICI Polyurethanes has developed a versatile, low density foam technology based on MDI which can be tailored to specific seat requirements, ensuring superior ride comfort and durability performance.