Automobile is the lifeline of present society. Trade, Industry and Commercial activity extremely dependent on this sector. Therefore, it is no exception that tremendous growth and development is taking place in this sector. This automotive sector consumes a lot of textile materials that may be visible or concealed in automobile. The global consumption of textiles used in automobile industry is estimated to be over 4.5 lakh tonnes. The percentage of textile material used in motor car amounts to 2.2% of the overall weight of the car.
Textiles provide a means of decoration and a warm soft touch to surfaces that are necessary features for human well being and comfort, but textiles are also essential components of the more functional parts of all road vehicles, trains, aircrafts and sea vessels.
Textiles in transport are classified as technical because of the very high performance specifications and special properties required. e.g. seat coverings are not easy to remove for cleaning and are fixed in place in many automobiles and must last the lifetime of the car without ever being washed. In addition, they have to withstand much higher exposure to day light and damaging ultraviolet radiations and must have stringent safety requirements such as flame retardancy.
