Interior Parts - Data Sheet Versus Real Life Performance

The design and material selection for interior trim parts must take into account the expected service life and environment of the part. This environment is largely the high temperatures encountered in the automobile interior and occasional contact with various interior cleaning agents.

Material selection is customarily based on information found in material data sheets. This data is generated by using standard ASTM test specimens and test methods. While those results are useful, the data is generated under molding conditions which may be far from the ones under which actual parts are produced.

Molding conditions, material characteristics, part design, and gating play a major role in the real performance of the molded parts.

This paper will demonstrate the effect of some of those parameters on the actual performance of interior parts.