Seat covers chapter two article at Automotive-interiors.com provides repair, replacement and online resources for all of your auto interior needs. We repair torn,cut or worn out auto interiors. Our auto interior work includes headliners,seats,dashboards and any other auto interior component you may need. We also replace automotive tops and convertible tops. Call us today with your auto or boat interior needs and see if we can help you.
Seat Covers Part II: Sustainability
In the last installment of this series about car seat covers, we told you just
how important these covers are to the makeup of a vehicle as we introduced them.
Yes, car seat covers do more than just prevent food, drinks and dirt from building
up on your actual seat, they also help maintain the value of your vehicle and
can add some flair to your ride. We also told you about how the seat cover is
one of the most complex parts of a vehicle's interior in terms of design and
engineering. In this installment, we're going to cover the materials that help
make up your seat covers. Specifically, we'll focus on one of the top buzzwords
surrounding the auto industry, and really any industry for that matter, today:
sustainability.
Sustainability isn't just defined as adding components to your vehicle that
will help it to get better gas mileage or last longer. It's also defined by
choosing materials that aren't harmful to the environment. A common example
is the coffee cup. For example, it's not hard to see that using a travel mug
for your coffee every day, rather than receiving and discarding a Styrofoam
coffee cup, is the more sustainable choice. The same can be said about certain
seat cover materials. Common materials are plastic, leather and cloth. What
do they all have in common? They take a long time to decompose in landfills
after they've exhausted their shelf life.
While we haven't seen eco-friendly alternatives for seat covers quite on the
same level as we have for components like interior panels (foam alternatives),
some notable exceptions have come about in the past few years. For example,
corn. Honda announced in 2006 that it developed a plant-based bio fabric that
is produced through the polymerization of propanediol. Propanediol is derived
from corn. While there isn't a substantial weight savings with the material,
there is an environmental benefit. Honda estimated that not only would they
not have to change their fabric production process to produce the material,
but that it will reduce energy use by up to 15% in doing so. That could ultimately
translate to cheaper seat covers.
While bio-based products unquestionably offer a sustainable alternative to conventional
materials, seat covers also have their share of unusual materials. For example,
pasta. And it's no laughing matter. The pasta-made seat covers have the type
of feel and look of the wooden seat covers that so many traditionalist drivers
like. And while pasta-made seat covers are unlikely to go into production any
time soon, it's proof that soliciting different minds for material alternatives
can yield different results.
Who knows what eco-friendly material alternative they'll come up with next.
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Automotive-interiors.com provides repair, replacement and online resources for all of your auto interior needs. We repair torn,cut or worn out auto interiors. Our auto interior work includes headliners,seats,dashboards and any other auto interior component you may need. We also replace automotive tops and convertible tops. Call us today with your auto or boat interior needs and see if we can help you.