Advanced aesthetic material solutions for car interiors

The current study is focused on the identification of the factors that influence the soiling propensity of the polymeric materials adopted in the passenger compartment over eleven different textures. The polymers under analysis are different formulations of polypropylene, thermoplastic polyolefin and polyamide, in dark and light color. The results of the soiling tests have been correlated to the surface energy, the surface hardness and flexural modulus. Furthermore, being a novel field of work the definition of suitable test methodologies is addressed as well. Three test methodologies have been developed starting from real life scenarios and previous available technology. They differ in the intensity of the applied load during testing and in the adopted soiling agent. The level of soiling of a surface is defined as the difference in color between the soiled and clean areas of the part evaluated according to the CIELAB scale.