Electronic-nose systems for control quality applications in automotive industry

This paper reports the tests of three gas sensor technologies, based on an electrical resistance variation in the presence of volatile compounds, for the discrimination of five polyurethane materials used in the car seats manufacture. The Metal Oxide Semiconductors (MOS), Metal Oxide Semiconductors Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and Conducting Polymers (CP) sensors have been tested in order to select the most appropriate one(s) for automotive interior trim polymers applications. The effectiveness of gas sensors in discriminating between foams was observed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA). The results showed that CP sensors are not well suitable in discriminating foams, while MOS sensors and MOSFET in association with MOS sensors present a good efficiency in separating samples according to their suppliers.