PVC-based synthetic leather with thermal comfort for automobile applications

Increasingly consumers are demanding cars to be comfortable even for more economic commercial segments. Thus, the development of materials with thermo-regulation properties assumed renewed interest. An attempt has been made to prepare multi-layer PVC-based synthetic leather with paraffinic PCM´s to be applied on car seats. The thermal behaviour of the material was analysed using a thermal manikin combined with an Infra-Red camera, monitoring the temperature development as in a real situation and comparing the results with Alambeta apparatus that test bi-dimensional fabrics regarding thermal propertiesThis work is financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Program - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136.