Development of High Comfort Seat Foam and its Physical Properties

Polyurethane flexible foams have been widely used for automotive seat cushions because of the cushioning performance. It has been required so far to reduce the density of seat cushion foam. However improving the riding comfort of seat cushions is also considered important. In seating design, most foam properties specified by the design engineer are based upon static testing properties. However, the in-service mode of an automotive seat is dynamic rather than static. Therefore the dynamic properties are of greater importance for the comfort performance of a seat than such static properties as indentation force deflection (IFD), density, or ball rebound. The purpose of this paper is to show the systematic research results of polyurethane foam comfort properties. [1, 2, 3, and 4].