Leather is widely used in the passenger compartment of automobiles. The raw material of leather will be adjusted by adding additives when the trim materials used for automobiles are produced. Those additives are usually liable to volatile especially in an environment where the temperature is high.

The volatile components of the leather may float in the air and influence the air quality in the interior of automobiles or even condense on the surface of the auto glass and interfere the driver’s view in driving, which may become a potential threat to the driving safety. Therefore, it is quite necessary to test the fogging characteristics of the leather before using it in the interior of automobiles.

This article provides a simplified test method of the fogging characteristics of leather for your reference. The test specimens are leather used in the seats of one brand automobile. The testing instrument used for the tests is Labthink’s FT-F1 Fogging Tester.

Figure 1. Trims used in interior of automobiles

Currently there are mainly 2 test methods of the fogging characteristics of trims used in interior of automobiles i.e. reflectometer method and gravimetric method. Labthink’s FT-F1 Fogging Tester conforms to ISO 6452: Rubber- or plastics-coated fabrics-Determination of fogging characteristics of trim materials in the interior of automobiles and BS EN 14288-2003: Leather-Physical and Mechanical Tests-Determination of Fogging Characteristics.

In the tests, the preconditioned specimen is heated and evaporates in the beaker; the volatile constituents condense on the glass plate or aluminum foil treated in cooling chamber. Take off the glass plate or aluminum foil when the condensation process is finished. The fogging characteristics could be obtained by measuring condensed constituent weight and fogging value on the glass plate or aluminum foil and comparing with the data before condensation process.

The tests shall be performed according to the following procedures.

(1)    Switch on the fogging tester and set test temperatures, maintaining temperature of high temperature bath at 100℃.

(2)    Cut 3 pieces of specimen from the provided sample material. The diameter of the specimen shall be 80mm. Condition the specimens in a desiccant container at 23±2℃ for at least 2 days.

(3)    Clean the glass beaker thoroughly and dry it.

(4)    Weigh the weight of aluminum foil and record the value.

(5)    Place the specimens into 3 glass beakers respectively. Add 10±0.1g dioctyl phthalate (DOP) into another glass beaker for comparison test. Then place sealing ring, aluminum which have been weighed, glass plate and filter paper successively on the top of glass beaker.

(6)    Place the glass beakers into the high temperature bath (100℃). Place the cooling plate on the filter paper. The temperature of cooling water is 21℃ heated for 16 hours.

(7)    Remove the aluminum foil and place it in the desiccant container for 3.5 ~ 4 hours with observed face facing upward. Then weigh the weight of aluminum foil. The difference of weight of aluminum foil before and after fogging test is the fogging value.

For more details about FT-F1 Fogging Tester, please visit www.labthink.com

About Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd:

Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd is one leading supplier of packaging testing instruments, which is headquartered in Jinan, China and operated in Boston, U.S.A.