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This paper proposed a method to improve the consistency of the subjective odor testing for many automotive components. The variability in subjective odor test data has been very large due to lack of references, difficulty in maintaining reliable and consistent references, jury members’ bias, inconsistent jury members, misinterpretation of the odor evaluation scale, and lack of analytical methods for the data. To overcome these challenges, the proposed method used: 1) a selected and trained jury, 2) constant odor references or “anchors”, 3) a continuous data collection scale, and 4) statistical inference techniques. To reduce the variability from jury members, jury members were screened and selected based on a selection process and were trained using a consistent odor media. To reduce variability from bias originated by personal opinion or history, a consistent odor references or ‘anchors’ were introduced.

This paper presents the performances of automotive cabin air filters which gained a wide range of service mileage at various locations in the U.S. These performances include initial and final fractional efficiencies and pressure drop of the split-fiber filters and the nonwoven filters at a wide variety of dust loadings and service distances driven. Dust loading rate of filters at different fleet locations are compared, and the design issues on service life of the cabin air filter is discussed. Also presented are in-vehicle performance data which give insights to the design location of the automotive filtration system.

This paper quantifies typical United States in-vehicle cowl area particulate filter parameters such as temperature, humidity and environmental conditions. Secondly, United States and Germany particulate filter fleet results will be included to help quantify the effect of loading on electret nonwoven particulate filter fractional efficiency and demonstrate the amount and types of particulate matter captured. Finally the paper will address the low submicron fractional filter efficiency of a simulated production “wet and dry” plate-fin automotive evaporator core.