Overview

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are widely used in industry and may be emitted by many everyday products and materials. They have attracted attention in recent years because of their impact on indoor air quality. After homes and workplaces, people spend a lot of time in their vehicles. Therefore there is a need for comprehensive and reliable information about the types of organic compounds in the interior air of vehicles and also their concentrations. As part of measures to achieve acceptable indoor air quality it is important to determine the material emissions of interior parts and to reduce them, if necessary, to an acceptable level. This part of ISO 12219 is a test standard for the field of environmental protection; it provides instructions for a chamber based, static headspace type method for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde and other carbonyl compounds which may diffuse from vehicle interior unit components into the cabin air. The static chamber emission test is intended to provide characteristic emission data of unit component to car interior of assembly level emission. It also specifies requirements for the emission test chamber, preparation of the test specimen, connection of the organic vapour sampling devices and test conditions. This method is intended for the assessment of new car interior unit components intended for vehicles, and can also be used for car interior unit components disassembled from used cars. The static chamber method can provide diffusion data from a unit component of vehicle interior trim without cutting it. It can be used to verify the correlation between a material-based method and an assembly-based method. The individual measuring methods for the determination of VOC emissions from car interior unit components like the bag (DIN ISO 12219-2)/micro-scale chamber (DIN ISO 12219-3)/small-chamber method (DIN ISO 12219-4) and the statistic chamber-based method complement each other. The specified analytical procedure for VOCs (ISO 16000-6) is validated for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ranging in concentration from sub-µg/m³ to several mg/m³. The method is applicable to the measurement of non-polar and slightly polar VOCs ranging in volatility from n-C6 to n-C16. Some very volatile compounds (VVOC) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) can also be analysed. This part of ISO 12219 provides third party test laboratories and manufacturing industry with an approach for: - comparing emissions from various unit components with VOC emissions from related complete assemblies measured in other tests, - evaluating and categorising specific unit components by their VOC emission data, - comparing and correlating emission from unit components with VOC emission data obtained in other tests for the various materials used to make the unit component, - evaluating prototype, "low-emission" unit components during development. The principle of the test is to assess the emission rate of VOCs and carbonyls from unit components under conditions of fixed temperature and good mixing. It is a static headspace type method based on good air mixing. The sample is incubated in an emission test chamber containing clean air for a selected period at fixed temperature. During the incubation, the air between the chamber inside and buffer bag is mixed thoroughly with a mixing fan. The air inside the test chamber is then sampled and analysed, after equilibrium has been reached or at time to determine the vapour-phase masses/concentrations of VOCs and carbonyls in the gas phase. Then, these data are used to characterize the car trim unit component in terms of their relative emission rates. This document is directed at representatives of the automotive industry, automotive suppliers, of the chemical industry and at representatives of testing laboratories and supervisory authorities. The International Standard has been prepared by Joint Working Group ISO/TC 22-ISO/TC 146/SC 6/WG 13 (JWG 13) "Determination of volatile organic components in car interiors" of Technical Committees ISO/TC 22 "Road vehicles" and ISO/TC 146, "Air quality", Subcommittee (SC 6) "Indoor air". Chairmanship and secretariat of JWG 13 are held by Germany. The responsible German Committee is NA 134-04-04-15 UA "Autoinnenraum" ("Car interior"). The standard has been prepared with significant participation of Department IV "Umweltmesstechnik" ("Environmental metrology") of the Commission on Air Pollution at VDI, and of DIN Standards Committee KRdL, and the Working Group "Innenraumemission" ("Interior emission") of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

Document: references other documents

Document: referenced in other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 134-04-04-06 UA - Interior air of road vehicles