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Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in car

seats
a b a a
X. Ye , R. Fangueiro , H. Hu & M. de Arajo
a
College of Textiles, Donghua University , Shanghai, People's Republic of China
b
School of Engineering , University of Minho , Guimaraes, Portugal
Published online: 19 Jan 2009.

To cite this article: X. Ye , R. Fangueiro , H. Hu & M. de Arajo (2007) Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in car
seats, The Journal of The Textile Institute, 98:4, 337-344, DOI: 10.1080/00405000701489677

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 Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics
in car seats
Date Submitted 30 March 2006, Date Accepted 8 September 2006 doi:10.1080/00405000701489677

X. Ye1, R. Fangueiro2, H. Hu1and M. de Araujo

2
1
College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China
2
School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal

Abstract: Polyurethane foam is commonly used as padding in car seats despite some problems concern-
ing comfort and recycling. Compared with polyurethane foam, textile seat padding is easier to recycle; so
textile padding is a good candidate to substitute foam padding as regulations on recycling have become
more stringent on car manufacturers. With the available textile option, warp-knitted spacer fabrics
Downloaded by [Hong Kong Polytechnic University] at 00:59 04 July 2014

are likely a good substitute for polyurethane foam as padding in car seats. Warp-knitted spacer fabric
structures can be designed to be quite flexible in a variety of thicknesses. Warp-knitted spacer fabrics
can be very resilient and may display good breathing properties. The current work presents a study on
the application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics as cushion in car seats. The results show that, relatively to
polyurethane foam, warp-knitted spacer fabrics demonstrate better recovery to compression, thermal
properties and breathability. Furthermore, warp-knitted spacer fabrics retain their original thickness
for longer time and can be easily recycled.

Key words: Spacer fabric, compression property, pressure relief, thermal property

INTRODUCTION an attractive design, stringent mechanical properties for

In a new product development, designers must pay in-
creased attention to environmental issues. In the motorcar
industry, materials recycling have become a very impor-
tant requirement. Fabrics and carpets inside cars are often
composed of several layers of different materials, usually
a polyester fabric laminated to a soft polyurethane foam
backing by an adhesive. This type of construction makes
disassembling virtually impossible, and the combination
of different polymer chemistries for the fabric and back-
ing makes recycling of the assembly extremely difficult.
Furthermore, there is effluent emission from the flame-
bonding process, which is used to combine the different
layers. As a result, the use of polyurethane foam in car
interiors is environmentally hazardous both in terms of
production and recycling (Wilkens, 1993).
Apart from the environmental issues, todays car seats
must fulfil a multiplicity of demands. They must have
Corresponding author:
M. D. de Araujo
Department of Textile Engineering
University of Minho
4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal
Tel: +351253510291; Fax: +351253510293
E-mail: mario.araujo@det.uminho.pt
durability and offer protection to passengers during an
accident. Car seats must be comfortable too. This com-
fort must include both the mechanical support that the
seat gives to the body as well as good climatic conditions,
which are paramount for a drivers performance. Climatic
comfort means good thermoregulation, which can balance
the bodys energy and offer good microclimate around the
human skin. Studies have been conducted to measure the
drivers rectal temperature with different types of car seats.
With car seats offering good thermoregulation, after several
hours of driving, the subject can still stay in the comfort re-
gion, i.e. below 37.5 C even in warm temperatures (25 C).
On the other hand, some types of seats, which offer poor
climatic comfort, will make the driver feel uncomfortably
warm very quickly, as the rectal temperature rises to 37.5 C
in approximately 40 min. After 2 h, the rectal temperature
may rise to 38.2 C, which is the limit of endurable strain
for a normal person. Driving in such an uncomfortable
seat, the driver must have a break; otherwise, he may have
an accident caused by impaired physical and mental stress
(Umbach, 2000).
In recent years, the use of technical textiles has grown
very fast. These fibrous materials, which have a variety
of technical end uses, may also substitute some conven-
tional materials with advantage in specific applications
(Heide, 2000). Warp-knitted spacer fabrics belong to this
class, and they are very interesting structures due to their

Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute 337 TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4 pp. 337343

X. Ye, R. Fangueiro, H. Hu and M. de Araujo

sional, mechanical and comfort properties. Spacer fabrics

present good resilience to compression, high bulk with rel-
atively lightweight and very good moisture permeability
for thermoregulation (Rothe, 2001; Schwabe et al., 2005).
In addition, spacer fabrics are good at pressure relief (Heide
2002; Schwabe et al., 2005; Ye et al., 2005a, 2005b).

Figure 1 A warp-knitted spacer fabric.

EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

unique three-dimensional (3D) configuration, as shown in Materials

Figure 1. Their thickness may vary between 2 and 60
mm with good compressibility and breathability. A stan-
dard spacer fabric consists of two independent fabrics con-
nected by spacer yarns, which complete the whole assembly
(Rothe, 2001). This is illustrated in Figure 1b.
To sustain the space between the two independent fab-
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The objective of this work is to study the compression be-
haviour, thickness variation, pressure relief, thermal prop-
erties and air permeability of warp-knitted spacer fabrics
and compare them with other alternative materials for car
seats, especially polyurethane foam.
The spacer yarns used are monofilament, and the surface

rics and to obtain the required compressive properties
in the thickness direction, monofilament yarns are nor-
mally used as the spacer yarn. The material used may be
polyamide, polypropylene and especially polyester. More-
over, the two independent fabrics may be knitted into any
kind of mesh or plain structures to get the required dimen-
yarns used are multifilament.
The materials used in the current work are specified in
Table 1.
All the warp-knitted spacer fabrics were knitted in a
double needle-bar warp-knitting machine with six guide
bars. Guide bars GB1, GB2, GB5 and GB6 knit identical

Table 1 Specifications of the sample materials

Wale density Course density Thickness Mass Angle of Material
Code Type (w/cm) (c/cm) (mm) (g/m2 ) spacer yarns used
1 Warp-knitted 7.5 10 6.50 476 45 Surface yarn 120 dtex
spacer fabric 1 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn 100 dtex
PES monofilament
A1 Warp-knitted 4.7 8 17.93 1,375 63 Surface yarn 400 dtex
spacer fabric 2 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn 350 dtex
PES monofilament
A2 Warp-knitted 4.7 8 17.75 1,285 50 Surface yarn 400 dtex
spacer fabric 3 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn 350 dtex
PES monofilament
A3 Warp-knitted 4.7 8 17.54 1,100 38 Surface yarn 400 dtex
spacer fabric 4 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn 350 dtex
PES monofilament
B1 Warp-knitted 4.7 8 28.02 1,950 52 Surface yarn: 600 dtex
spacer fabric 5 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn: 540 dtex
PES monofilament
B2 Warp-knitted 4.7 8 43.70 2,867 52 Surface yarn: 600 dtex
spacer fabric 6 PES multifilament
90 Spacer yarn: 540 dtex
PES monofilament
2 Polyurethane foam 1 28.80 576 Polyurethane foam
3 Polyurethane foam 2 28.80 576 Polyurethane foam
C1 Polyurethane foam 3 16.16 323 Polyurethane foam
C2 Polyurethane foam 4 14.05 442 Memory foam
4 Wadding 20.40 458 Nonwoven PP wadding

PES = polyester. PP = polypropylene.

TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4 338 Copyright 

C 2007 The Textile Institute

Figure 2 Compression instrument.
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surface structures on each needle bed. They produce
surface fabrics with a small mesh as shown in Figure 1.
Both guide bars GB3 and GB4 are half threaded and
undergo symmetrical movements. The length of the un-
derlaps depends on the distance between the two needle
beds and on the required spacer thread angle.
As an example, details of the lapping movements of the
various guide bars for spacer fabric A2 are given below:
GB1: 0-0-2-2/2-2-1-1/1-1-3-3/ half threaded
3-3-1-1/1-1-2-2/2-2-0-0//
GB2: (1-0-0-0/0-1-1-1/) 3 fully threaded
GB3: (0-1-0-1/8-9-8-9/) 3 half threaded
GB4: (1-0-1-0/9-8-9-8/) 3 half threaded
GB5: (1-1-1-0/0-0-0-1/) 3 fully threaded
GB6: 0-0-0-0/2-2-2-2/1-1-1-1/ half threaded
3-3-3-3/1-1-1-1/2-2-2-2//
The angle of the spacer yarn is defined as the angle
between the spacer yarn and the fabric surface.
TEST METHODS
Compression characteristics
To study the compression characteristics, the instrument
shown in Figure 2 was used. This instrument was de-
veloped at Donghua University and manufactured by
Changzhou Baoyi Machinery Co. Ltd. (Changzhou, Peo-
ples Republic of China). It works in conformity with the
Chinese standard FZ/T01051.2-1998. This instrument is
composed of a presser foot with a contact area of 10 cm2 ,
which moves vertically at a speed of 10 mm/min. During
the test, both the pressure applied to the sample and its
thickness are recorded.
As soon as the presser foot touches the sample, the sensor
at the top of the presser foot starts measuring the value
of the pressure applied, which is recorded. At the same
time, another sensor measures the position of the presser
foot, i.e. the thickness of the sample under a particular
Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute
Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in car seats
Figure 3 Clinseat system for measurement of pressure.
pressure, which is also recorded. In this way, the thickness
and pressure exerted on a sample during the compression
and recovery process are recorded and the compression
and recovery curves obtained.
Thickness variation under dynamic and static loading
The instrument used for testing under dynamic conditions
was designed at Donghua University and manufactured by
Changzhou Baoyi Machinery Co. Ltd. A press plate with
a contact area of 15 15 cm2 moved up and down with
a frequency of 30 cycles/min, applying a dynamic load of
50 kPa on to the samples. The thickness variation after a
number of loading cycles was measured.
Pressure relief during seating
To study pressure reduction during seating, the pressure
under the buttocks of a subject was measured by the Clin-
seat system (shown in Fig. 3), which is composed of a flex-
ible sensor mat, a connector and a computer. There is soft-
ware that calculates and displays the values related to a va-
riety of parameters measured (compressed area, peak pres-
sure and average pressure). The range of pressures, from
high to low, is registered in 13 different colours, from red
to blue, so that the pressure at the buttocks can be shown in
colourful two-dimensional or three-dimensional graphs.
A standard female (50 kg) was chosen as the subject for
the test. She was seated on the chair without any other part
of body touching the ground or anything else. Initially,
the pressure at the buttocks was measured by seating the
subject on the sensing mat without any sample on it, and
then each individual sample was placed under the sensor
mat and seated by the same person in the same pose. The
pressure at the buttocks on different cushion materials
(samples) was measured and retrieved.
Air permeability
All samples were kept under a standard atmosphere (Temp.
23 2 C; RH 65 2%) for 24 h before testing, which was
done according to the standard ISO 9237:1995, using the
TEXTEST FX 3300 air permeability tester III (Textest
AG, Schwerznbach, Switzerland).
Thermal properties
The Alambeta apparatus was used to measure some im-
portant thermal properties of warp-knitted spacer fabrics
and polyurethane foams. The apparatus works with one
339 TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4

X. Ye, R. Fangueiro, H. Hu and M. de Araujo
Figure 4 Typical compression/recovery curve of a
warp-knitted spacer fabric.
heat sensor within a presser foot and another heat sensor
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within the bottom plate; when the presser foot comes in
contact with the sample, the two sensors will measure the
heat passing through the sample. The values of the relevant
parameters relating to the thermal properties are worked
out and displayed on a PC monitor.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Compression characteristics
To study the compressive behaviour of different materials,
samples 1, 2, 3 and A1 were chosen. Their specifications
are shown in Table 1.
A typical compression/recovery curve of a warp-knitted
spacer fabric 1 is shown in Figure 4. There is a hysteresis
effect during compression and recovery, which is simi-
lar to normal fabrics. This curve shows that during com-
pression, there are three phases, which are related to the
properties and configuration of the spacer yarn used be-
tween the two surface fabrics. In phase I, the spacer yarn
works like an elastic spring, which connects the front sur-
face and back surface. The yarn is compressed axially,
and it buckles under the compression within the elastic
limit. In this case, there is good resistance to bending. In
phase II, the spacer yarn begins to bend beyond the elastic
Figure 5 Compression/recovery curves warp-knitted of different materials.
TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4
limit, and so the warp-knitted spacer fabric is more easily
compressed. At higher loads, the spacer yarn is folded by
the high-compression forces exerted on the warp-knitted
spacer fabric, and the compression of the yarn structures
in the cross-sectional direction takes place, as shown in
phase III.
For best results, the compressive load of a warp-knitted
spacer fabric should be within phase I for good resilience,
comfort and resistance to fabric damage. The pressure
limits for the three phases vary and depend on the bending
rigidity and structure of the spacer yarn as well as the
thickness of the warp-knitted spacer fabric.
The compression curve of the warp-knitted spacer fab-
rics is quite different from that of the other materials listed
in Table 1, as shown in Figure 5. Woven, nonwoven and
knitted fabrics show similar compression curves to that
shown for the nonwoven wadding in Figure 5 (Hu and
Newton, 1997; Kothari and Das, 1993; Soe et al., 2003;
Taylor and Pollet, 2002). It should be pointed out that
the hysteresis loop of polyurethane foam is much larger
than the ones shown for the other materials, which indi-
cates a greater dissipation of energy during the compres-
sion/recovery cycle. While analysing Figure 5, it can be
seen that the wadding will be crushed by a pressure of
less than 10 kPa. The polyurethane foam and the warp-
knitted spacer fabrics are strong enough to withstand a
persons weight. However, the compression modulus of
warp-knitted spacer fabric 2 is much higher than that of
the PU foam and even at 50 KPa pressure it is still in
compression phase I. The WK spacer fabric 2 in Figure 5
shows considerably higher compression rigidity in phase
I than WK spacer fabric 1; because WK spacer fabric
2 is constructed with a much thicker and stiffer spacer
yarn.
Different foams with the appropriate compression be-
haviour are used for different applications. In all cases, the
compression characteristics for warp-knitted spacer fab-
rics should be chosen according to the end uses too. This
means that spacer fabrics have to be designed for a variety
of compression behaviours (i.e. harder or softer), according
to the end use.
340 Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute

Figure 6 Thickness variation of polyurethane foam 1 and
warp-knitted spacer fabric 6 under dynamic loading
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Figure 7 Thickness recovery of warp-knitted spacer fabric 6
and polyurethane foam 1 after 12 h of static loading.
Thickness variation under dynamic and static loading
The specifications of the samples used for the study of
thickness variation under dynamic and static conditions
are shown in Table 1 and coded as samples B2 and 2.
The results are shown in Figure 6. The curves showing
the behaviour of both materials follow a similar pattern, i.e.
the thickness decreases rapidly at the beginning of dynamic
loading and then it stabilises. However, the initial rate of
decrease in polyurethane foam 1 is higher than that of warp-
knitted spacer fabric 6. After 20,000 cycles, the thickness
of polyurethane foam 1 has decreased 6.6%, whereas the
thickness of warp-knitted spacer fabric 6 has decreased
1.3%. It may be added that, in other experiments whose
results are not shown here, thickness decreases of up to 8%
Figure 8 Distribution of the pressure on the seat with different materials: (a) without cushion, (b) with C1 polyurethane foam
cushion, and (c) with A2 warp-knitted spacer fabric cushion.
Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute
Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in car seats
have been observed for some warp-knitted spacer fabrics.
It is thought that the decrease in thickness of warp-knitted
spacer fabrics depends on the structure and properties of
the spacer yarn.
For the static loading experiment, the specimens were
compressed under a load of 25 kPa for a period of 12 h, after
which time the load was removed. The thickness recovery
of the specimens was measured, respectively, after 15 min,
30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 5 h, 8 h and 12 h of load removal and
recorded as illustrated in Figure 7. The results obtained for
both polyurethane foam 1 and warp-knitted spacer fabric
6 show curves of a similar shape for thickness recovery
after prolonged compression. Polyurethane foam 1 shows
a slightly higher recovery rate than warp-knitted spacer
fabric 6, whereas polyurethane foam 1 recovered 98.36%
of the initial thickness in 12 h and warp-knitted spacer
fabric 6 only recovered 97.98% at the same period of time.
This very small difference of 0.38% is hardly significant. It
is possible to improve further warp-knitted spacer fabrics
resilience to compression, in the thickness direction, by
using improved spacer yarns.
Pressure relief during seating
The warp-knitted knitted spacer fabrics used for testing
were produced with different fabric surface structures and
thicknesses. To make a comparison, polyurethane foams
were also selected for the tests. The specifications of the
samples are shown in Table 1, and the samples are coded
as A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Group A is composed
of three samples with the same fabric surface structure
and materials but with different angles between spacer
yarns and the fabric surfaces. The samples in group B are
identical, except for the thicknesses that are different. In
group C, there are two types of foam.
Typical three-dimensional graphs are shown in Fig-
ure 8, in which the peak points on the graphs represent the
peak pressure. The figure shows typical pressures at the
buttocks on the seat with different cushion materials. Com-
paring Figures 8a and 8c, it can be seen that the three light
(warm) colours disappeared in Figure 8c, meaning that
the high pressure has dissipated after using warp-knitted
341 TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4

X. Ye, R. Fangueiro, H. Hu and M. de Araujo
Figure 9 Peak pressure and average pressure of different materials.
Table 2 Air permeability of samples
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Sample no. A1 A2
Air permeability (l/s/m2 ) 4,204 4,197
Thickness (mm) 17.93 17.75
spacer fabric A2. When using polyurethane foam C1, there
is only a reduction in the area of high pressure, as shown
by comparing Figures 8a with 8b. By comparing these fig-
ures, it can be seen that the warp-knitted spacer fabric can
reduce the pressure better than the foam.
A more detailed analysis is shown next. The peak pres-
sure and the average pressure of each sample were mea-
sured and are presented as histograms in Figure 9, where
N shows the situation without any cushion; A2 2 and
A2 3 show the situations with two and three layers of A2
separately.
For group A, it can be seen that the angles between
the spacer yarns and the fabric surfaces influence pressure
relief. By using multiple layers, it can also be shown that
the effectiveness of pressure relief increases with thickness.
Samples B1 and B2 are much thicker than the warp-
knitted spacer fabric samples in group A. From Figure 9,
sample B2, which is the thickest, relieves considerably more
pressure than any other single layer sample.
Increasing the layers of warp-knitted spacer fabric A2
shows better pressure relief, and three layers of warp-
knitted spacer fabrics A2 reduce the peak pressure by 50%
and the average pressure by 40%. Three layers of warp-
knitted spacer fabric A2 can reduce more peak pressure
than sample B2.
Polyurethane foams show comparatively poor pressure
relief. However, the use of foam with better quality and
adequate compressive rigidity may relieve more pressure.
Air permeability
Air permeability of samples A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1 and
C2, specified in Table 1, was also measured, since it affects
comfort-related properties such as breathability, which is
very important for cushions and mattresses. The results
are shown in Table 2.
TJTI 2007 Vol. 98 No. 4
A3 B1 B2 C1 C2
4,188 3,307.2 3,306.8 923.8 54.8
1754 28.02 43.70 16.16 14.05
Warp-knitted spacer fabrics have much better air per-
meability than polyurethane foam for similar thicknesses.
For the samples in group B, it can be seen that air perme-
ability is almost the same even though the samples have
quite different thicknesses. The results for group A show
that air permeability is little affected by the spacer yarn
angle. This means that air permeability mainly depends
on the fabric cover. The difference in air permeability be-
tween polyurethane foam samples C1 and C2 is very large,
which shows that sample C2 has a less porous structure
than C1.
Thermal properties
Thermal regulation is an important aspect for the comfort
of seats. The specifications of the samples used are shown
in Table 1 (samples code C1 and A2), and the results of the
tests are shown in Table 3.
The tests were conducted with a single layer of the warp-
knitted spacer fabric (sample A2) and polyurethane foam
(sample C1). All the samples were kept under the standard
atmosphere condition (Temp. 23 2 C, RH 65 2%) for
24 h before testing. Then, the tests were processed under
the same atmospheric conditions.
The results show that the WK spacer fabric has higher
heat conductivity and lower heat resistance than the PU
foam. Therefore, it is easier for the warp-knitted spacer
fabric to transfer heat away from the human body than
polyurethane foam. When a subject seats on a warp-knitted
spacer fabric seat, it will be easier to prevent the build-up
of heat under the buttocks comparatively to a polyurethane
foam seat. This improves comfort if the driver has to drive
for long periods of time under standard comfortable tem-
perature and humidity conditions.
The thermal absorptivity of a material gives a measure
of the warm/cool feeling at initial contact with the human
342 Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute

Table 3 Thermal properties of polyurethane foam and warp-knitted spacer
fabrics
Thermal
Thickness conductivity
Sample h (mm) (w/m K) 103
C1 16.16 90.30
A2 17.75 108.00
body. In this context, warp-knitted spacer fabrics have a
cooler feeling than polyurethane foam fabrics, as thermal
absorptivity of the former is higher in all cases. This may
be beneficial when the subject initially sits in warm climatic
conditions.
Downloaded by [Hong Kong Polytechnic University] at 00:59 04 July 2014
CONCLUSIONS
Warp-knitted spacer fabrics have compression properties
different from those of normal fabrics because of the spacer
yarn. Warp-knitted spacer fabrics show very good lin-
ear elastic compressibility in the first compression phase,
which is of great interest for seats. The limit of the first
compression phase varies with the bending rigidity and
structure of the spacer yarn and with the thickness of the
fabric. In this context, it is easy to design adequate WK
spacer fabrics with suitable compression characteristic for
use in car seats.
Furthermore, warp-knitted spacer fabrics are better at
reducing peak pressure than polyurethane foam. Using
thicker warp-knitted spacer fabrics with appropriate spacer
yarn structure and material, pressure can be much re-
duced. Since there are limits to the thickness of warp-
knitted spacer fabrics, several layers may be used to get
higher thicknesses and increased pressure relief. Car seats
with cushions of the warp-knitted spacer fabric are bet-
ter at reducing peak pressures than seat cushions from
polyurethane foam. In this context, the former will make
drivers feel more comfortable.
Air permeability of warp-knitted spacer fabrics is much
better than polyurethane foams. Air permeability depends
on the structure of the warp-knitted spacer fabrics. There-
fore, these fabrics are more breathable substrates for car
seats than polyurethane foam ones.
Warp-knitted spacer fabrics have higher thermal con-
ductivity and lower thermal resistance than polyurethane
foams. Therefore, warp-knitted spacer fabrics can transfer
heat more effectively away from the drivers body and so
these fabrics have better thermoregulation properties than
polyurethane foams for warm climatic conditions. Warp-
knitted spacer fabrics have good and comparable stability
on thickness with polyurethane foams.
Generally speaking, car seat cushions made of warp-
knitted spacer fabrics can offer good mechanical support
and physical comfort to the drivers body. These fabrics are
Copyright 
C 2007 The Textile Institute
Application of warp-knitted spacer fabrics in car seats
Thermal absorptivity
(heat absorption Heat resistance R
1
capacity) b (w s /2 /m2 K) (m2 K/w) 103
41.30 221.30
90.30 141.50
stronger than polyurethane foams, can be used for longer
periods of time and can even be reused with new seats
covers. Therefore, these fabrics used for seats are easier to
recycle than polyurethane foam ones.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank the European Commission for
awarding research funds under the EU Asia-Link Program
and the University of Minho (Portugal) and Donghua Uni-
versity (Peoples Republic of China) for providing research
facilities. The authors also want to thank Quzhou Fulian
Warp Knitting Co., Ltd. (Quanzhou, Peoples Republic
of China) for supplying the spacer fabrics used in this
study.
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