Abstract

Automotive upholstery leather can undergo extreme environmental conditions that may cause premature ageing. Leather is strongly affected by three main environmental parameters: temperature, relative humidity and UV radiation.

UV radiation causes colour change, fading, surface erosion, loss of gloss, etc. Increasing the levels of UV radiation represents a primary accelerating factor for leather ageing. Temperature produces thermal oxidation degradations, subsequent reaction rates and acceleration of other weathering reactions. Relative humidity acts as a chemical reagent in many hydrolytic weathering reactions and as a physical stressor of leather. Additionally, when relative humidity is over 65% leather is susceptible to mould attack.

The aim of this work is to compare the effect of the tropical environment exposure on both chrometanned and wet-white upholstery leather.