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DECORA spundyed polyester yarns for automotive fabric applications

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DECORA Polyester spun-dyed
for plain-colored automotive textiles
(part 1)

Wolfgang Morgenstern

Spundyed Decora polyester yarns for automotive fabrics now produced by Miroglio

As per 01.10.2005 Miroglio of Alba Italy has taken over from Setila Widnau the entire Decora line. This includes color laboratory, all production equipment, the recipes, the trademark and the trademark DECORA. The equipment is mounted in Miroglio' s Saluzzo plant and is expected to be fully operational in 1st quarter 2006.

Technology advances have made it possible to lengthen the life span of a car by several years. What would be the promising of a longer life if the colours of the upholstery, door trims and roof liner could not withstand the strength and intensity of the effects of sunlight, ultra violet rays and humidity. With the practical testing in the Kalahari Desert, Arizona of Florida [1] the car producer can simulate the test requirements, reducing the intensity of the exposure to a shorter period and building it up to a longer period.

Standards

Standards have clearly risen in the past years [2]. For example, in order to protect textiles from too much direct light, they were replaced by plastic in window areas. Now we deal with their surfaces differently. Textiles are being used right up to the glass. In the back of the car the upholstery is directly under the rear window. Today a significantly improved light-fastness is demanded; automotive textiles have to pass the 5x FAKRA light-fastness tests with a grade of 7 on the blue scale and a 4 on the grey scale. But still the limits have not been reached, and already there is talk of 10x FAKRA which will increase the test periods enormously.

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Decora spun dyed (dope dyed) polyester textile yarns from Miroglio

Light fastness tests

In a closed vehicle temperature peaks of over 100 °C can arise. The ultra-violet rays and their strength are dependent on the glazing and the size and arrangements of the panes. In addition to the expensive outdoor testing methods described above, there is also the determination of light fastness at high temperature of the synthetic materials used in the car’s interior fittings in accordance with DIN 75202. Each car producer has his own specification for the various different exposures, with measuring equipment such as Xenotest 150, 450, 1200 or Atlas C135W being used. These differ with regard to light source, filter, light strength, black standard temperature, test room temperature, relative humidity and exposure time. All test methods, however, have one definition in common: according to DIN 75202 the end of an exposure period is reached when the color reference of the light corresponding to level 3 of the grey-scale. The contrasts are confirmed by means of a spectro- photometer, if one is available [3]. Examples of the FAKRA-values for some Decora spun-dyed colors are given in Table 1.

Table 1

FAKRA

Shade number

Shade name

1x

3x

5x

2450

porzellan

8

8

8

2452

indira

8

7-8

7-8

2455

caramel

7

6-7

6-7

2457

wolke

8

8

8

2464

cassis

8

7

7

2465

igel

8

7-8

7

2469

tomate

8

8

8

2477

avocado

8

7

7

2487

tiefschwarz

8

8

8

2488

tristesse

8

8

8

2492

nero

8

8

8

2495

beton

7

6-7

6-7

If  the value for 3x FAKRA is satisfactory, the value for 5x FAKRA is seldom any lower. The greatest differences arise between 1x and 3x, but even these are modest. The color trends for 2000 are:

grey

51 %

black/anthracite

20 %

blue

10 %

beige

10 %

other colors

9 %

 

Why Polyester?

Although nylon yarns by comparison with polyester yarns possess good abrasion resistance and are found by the customer to be softer, over the years polyester yarns have established their supremacy. The parameters of both flat and textured polyester yarns are excellent for this end-use. Dimensional stability, rub fastness and easy-care properties cannot be beaten by any other fiber. One disadvantage is the very low moisture absorption capability of only 0.4 %, which can have a negative effect on the seating environment. However through texturing - and many products are textured today - it is possible to improve the properties for moisture and perspiration transmission. The resistance of polyester to light and ultraviolet rays is acceptable, the color values are good, and the targeted light fastness values are excellent when a spun-dyed Decora product is available.

General advantages of Decora are

  • very high light fastness values
  • from small to very large quantities in the same color
  • very good batch to batch color reproducibility
  • mayor cost advantages for mixture yarns
  • large range of shades meeting automotive fastness standards
  • reduced environmental implications
  • over-dyeing possibilities especially with light over dyeing

Polyester’s share of the automotive textile market

In 1996 polyester’s share of the automotive textile market was approaching 90 %. For 1997 the production figures of the European producers showed an increase to 92 %. With a production of 13.2 million cars (Table 2) and a consumption of around 3.0 kg of textile polyester per car, this equates to a consumption of 40'000 tons of polyester per year or around 86 million m2 of fabric – which implies a 25 % increase over recent years (Table 3).

Table 2 Worldwide car production

 

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

W. Europe

11994000

12465000

12849000

13187000

13921000

1370200

Japan

7801000

7612000

7653000

7521000

7450000

7180000

USA

6614000

6350000

6283000

6455000

6750000

6940000

South Korea

1806000

2003000

2274000

2532000

2785000

2921000

East.Europe

1588000

1721000

1927000

2084000

2309000

2500000

Others

6100900

6043000

6238000

6454000

6665000

7291000

Total

35912000

36194000

37224000

38233000

39880000

40534000

 

Table 3 Car production in Europe

 

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

Germany

3596000

3853000

3963000

4025000

4272000

4190000

France

2146000

2073000

2158000

2269000

2445000

2420000

Spain

1822000

1959000

1950000

1976000

2053000

2021000

UK

1467000

1532000

1577000

1643000

1741000

1706000

Italy

1341000

1422000

1479000

1515000

1574000

1553000

Belgium

1210000

1169000

1132000

1159000

1175000

1148000

Sweden

238000

229000

224000

214000

233000

245000

Netherlands

92000

98000

145000

175000

200000

192000

Portugal

41000

73000

150000

142000

145000

136000

Austria

40000

56000

71000

78000

83000

91000

Total

11994000

12465000

12849000

13187000

13921000

13702000

Whilst the increase in the USA and Japan has stagnated in recent years, in Western Europe there has been an annual rise of 3 %. For 1997 the West European market is split in the following proportions (Table 4).

 

Table 4

comparison

European usage [%]

share of polyester [%]

USA

Japan

flat woven

42

90

15

16

double-faced raschel

10

94

23

10

circular knit

22

99

6

9

warp knit

14

89

16

38

leather or vinyl

10

-

12

4

woven velour

2

40

28

23

The share of polyester in woven velour is 40 %, in flat woven 90 %, in warp-knit 89 %, in double-faced Raschel 94 % and in circular-knit 99 %, and with a tendency to rise where it is still possible. Because of its big range of spun-dyed colors and special counts for automotive applications, Setila, Widnau/Switzerland, had a 30 % share of this market.

That polyester is so much in demand for this end-use arises from its many positive characteristics and the absence of any particularly negative ones. The demands for exceptional price/performances relationships in both yarn and color have increased the necessity for polyester still further. Additionally if offers the required ease of sorting, which makes a recycling of textiles possible, should this be necessary.

 

Texturing

70 % of automotive textiles are made from textured polyester in knitted and woven fabrics: 55 % of this is airtextured and 45 % false twisted. The range of counts of air-textured commonly used are

 

1996

1997

over 900 dtex

26 %

19 %

650-900 dtex

50 %

62 %

under 650 dtex

15 %

19 %

Yarns used are becoming finer.

With air-texturing yarns can be created which have the appearance of natural fibers: various component yarns can be fed to the jet with different levels of over-feed and entangled to a specific color mix. In this area spun-dyed colors can really demonstrate their value. The color collections requested by the car producers can be established with excellent reproducibility using light-fast Decora spun-dyed colors (Fig. 1). To achieve the same results false-twisted, package-dyed and air-textured yarns have been used and occasionally still are used, although the production costs are substantially higher because of the complicated processing route, and light fastness will often barely reach the levels required today.

Fig. 1
decoratexturing.jpg (53612 Byte)

A proportion of the air-textured yarn is package-dyed for use as weft in woven fabrics. However a move towards spun-dyed Decora yarns is already happening here, because the target customers for Decora are the texturizers specializing in the automotive industry, who for the orders from high volume fabric producers choose spun-dyed yarn using the shade-card or specially developed colors. Following the designer’s original design, small samples are produced for initial trials:

  • 8-36 x 200 g bobbins for circular-knitting trials
  • 200  x 200 g bobbins for warp-knit or Raschel
  • 200  x 200 g bobbins for flat weaving

After that there is the possibility of scaling up to 1600 bobbins for use in bulk production trials once the initial sample stage consideration is given to whether the yarn will be flat, false-twisted or air-textured. A dark flat POY yarn gives distinctly lighter yarn after drawing and texturing

(Fig. 2).

decoraautosmokedpearl.jpg (24323 Byte)

Literature

  1. Lampe T.: Witterungsbeständige Kunststoffe und Textilien im Automobilbau, Mat.-Wiss. u. Werkstofftech. 27 (1996) 589-594
  2. Schmidt, G.: Anforderungsprofile an Autotextilien und Erkentnisse zu einigen Prüfkriterien, 34th Int. Man-Made Fiber Congress, Dornbirn 1995
  3. Rink, S.: Vereinheitlichung der Prüfverfahren in der deutschen Automibilindustrie, 34th Int.

Continuation part 2 please follow this link

 

Automotive Decora colours - please click for bigger picture 

Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured
Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured
Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured Decora shade card - polyester spundyed dopedyed Setila POY FDY and textured

Please note that the color tongues are divided into 3 sections:

  1. flat yarn to demonstrate the POY shade

  2. same shade in friction textured

  3. same shade in taslan (air textured)

Explanation of DECORA spundyed polyester color tongues in the color guide

The idea of this online shade card is to give you a first idea about the standard shades. With this tool you may choose the nearest color tongue as an initial color tongue sample. The color may be different from PC to PC because of the monitor settings (color warmth, color depth, lightness and contrast).

Decora Polyester program

This is a PDF file which you may download with a click on above picture at your convenience

 

Continuation part 2 please follow this link

You can also find here a of Wolfgang Morgenstern at the occasion o f 40th International Man Made Fiber Congress in Dornbirn 19 - 21.09.2001

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