Transport of Moisture in Car Seat Covers

Transport of liquid water is one of the basic producer requirements to ensure the suitable physiological comfort of drivers. This paper deals with the investigation of car seat covers' efficiency from the point of view of their moisture management. Two methods were used for the evaluation of moisture transport in the car seat cover structures. Both of them use a thermography system for water transport detection. The first method evaluates dynamic water spreading in cross-section in the frontal plane; the second one examines horizontally dynamic spreading of liquid drops on the upper face of the sample. The tested materials were designed to understand the role of the middle layer of textile sandwich car seats in their moisture management behavior. The same PES woven structure in the top layer was used for all tested samples. Knitted spacer fabric (3D spacer fabric), polyurethane foam, and nonwoven were used as padding in the middle layer in car seat covers. In summary, the distribution and transport of liquid moisture in a sandwich structure are fundamentally affected by the middle layer of composite, especially by material composition and the value of porosity. The best results were shown in 3D spacer fabric for car seat covers.