In North America, automotive recalls have cost the automotive industry roughly $20 billion annually due to quality issues. Performing automotive materials testing using a third-party lab like Professional Testing Laboratory (PTL) ensures that your automotive flooring and other interior products meet OEM requirements before they become shipped and installed.
Failure to meet OEM standards could result in product rejection. If this occurs, your company will need to redesign the automotive carpet floor mats, rubber mats, or seat fabric to meet compliance standards, which will take extra time and material usage. This issue leads to increased costs and delays. In other instances, if the materials are placed into vehicles and are later discovered to have serious problems, OEMs will have to issue product recalls.
PTL is a third-party testing site that works with manufacturers to ensure their automotive rubber floor mats, carpet fabric, upholstery fabric and seat fabrics meet quality standards. Our tests adhere to both manufacturers' specific standards as well as the automotive testing standards set forth by national and international organizations such as ASTM and ANSI. OEM automotive flooring requirements that we have adhered to includes:
To meet compliance, PTL performs key testing set by the specific OEM. OEMs will have benchmark quality performance indicators in various categories, such as impact resistance, durability, and other factors, that the products must reach. Our compliance testing aligns to these standards and provides detailed reports regarding how your automotive flooring, mats and seat covers stack up to these OEM performance indicators.
Durability testing for automotive floor mats and seat upholstery checks to ensure these materials for how they can withstand long-term wear and abrasion. Automotive flooring is also checked to see how it withstands to the amount of foot traffic which is common for vehicle use.
Flammability testing helps to verify that your automotive flooring has the required fire resistance. This OEM standard can ensure that passengers are safe.
Impact testing is designed to see how a material or product can handle sudden impacts or sharp objects that are dropped onto them to test resiliency. It also checks how the materials can handle heavy loads, such as weighted objects placed on the materials for a specific amount of time.
Materials will have certain friction levels that indicate how slippery they may become under certain conditions, such as wet and dry environments. Slip resistance testing measures these friction levels to check whether the automotive flooring can maintain a safe condition.
Chemical resistance testing will assess how the flooring materials will react to automotive chemicals that may be spilled onto the flooring or used for cleaning purposes. These chemicals may include oils, fuels, and cleaning agents.
Our environmental testing will put the automotive floor mat or carpet flooring through extreme temperatures, humidity conditions, and UV exposure to check for strength and durability.
These tests help to evaluate the materials to see how they will reduce cabin noise and vibrations. This feature can help manufacturers improve overall vehicle comfort for occupants.
OEMs in the automotive industry establish standards throughout their operations when it comes to building the interior of their vehicles. Companies that provide automotive flooring and seat products must meet these OEM compliance standards.
PTL is a US-based testing company that has familiarized itself regarding OEM compliance standards as well as national/international automotive standards for flooring and seat upholstery. Since standards can differ between manufacturers, it is important to work with a company that can follow the latest standards so that you understand the quality and performance characteristics of your manufactured products. We can help determine if your flooring is underperforming, has a possible performance issue to determine the source, or contains harmful formaldehyde or other dangerous materials.
Reach out to PTL for OEM testing of your automotive floor and seating products to ensure that they are market ready. Get in touch with us within the next 24 hours to receive a quote.