Machinery for vehicle interiors: door panels, dashboards and consoles
Leather and faux leather coverings for dashboards, door panels and armrests, consoles, armrests and gear lever gaiters. Decorative stitching that has to fall exactly in place when the piece is fitted onto the rigid substrate.
Inside the car, the seam almost never joins: it decorates. The leather or faux leather piece is sewn flat and then glued or wrapped over a rigid substrate. If the topstitching has wandered by a millimetre, it doesn’t fall into the groove of the substrate and the whole piece is scrapped. Here you work to manufacturer tolerances, even if the run is short.
What is sewn in the interior
Dashboard and instrument hood coverings, door panels and armrests, centre console and armrests, gear lever and handbrake gaiters, and pockets. The materials are leather, faux leather and Alcantara, often laminated with a thin foam that gives a soft touch.
Decorative stitching on a piece that will be shaped
What you need from the machine is consistency: the same stitch length from start to finish, topstitching at the same distance from the edge and exact parallelism on two-needle seams. That is why electronic compound feed flatbedsare valued for interiors: they store stitch length, presser foot lift and backtacks by program, and let two operators turn out the same piece. Models: Dürkopp Adler M-Type 867 and Delta 867.
Small, curved and closed pieces
A gear lever gaiter or an armrest can’t be sewn on a flatbed: the piece has no support. For tubular or already closed pieces you use a cylinder bed (Dürkopp Adler 69-373, DA 669) and for curves with volume, a post bed (Dürkopp Adler 888-1, PFAFF 1295/96 PLUS), where the needle works on top and the piece hangs freely around it.
Which machine for your production
| Your situation | Machines |
|---|---|
| Customisation workshop. Custom dashboards and panels, runs of one or two units. | PFAFF 1245 · JUKI LU-2860 (2 needles) · PFAFF 335G (cylinder bed) |
| Series supplier of coverings. Same part, manufacturer tolerances. | Dürkopp Adler M-Type 867 · Delta 867 · 888-2 (post bed) |
| Gaiters, armrests and closed pieces. | DA 69-373 · DA 669 · DA 888-1 |
| Dashboards with decorative double topstitching. Two parallel lines of double chainstitch, at the same distance, on the dashboard covering. | Pegasus TML 326 (post bed, double chainstitch) |
| Programmed patterns or quilting. Door panels with a pattern, topstitching that repeats identically. | PFAFF 3590 Portal · Dürkopp Adler 911 · JUKI PLK-J10050RH |
This is guidance: tell us the piece, the material and the units per day and we will pin it down.
Seam sealing on dashboards and panels
The problem is the same as on the seat: when the piece is shaped onto the substrate with heat, the foam and adhesive come through the needle holes. On dashboards and door panels the seam is sealed on the reverse before gluing, with the PFAFF 8303i-340/001 Baseline or the post bed 8303ix-340/011 and 243/011 when the piece is shaped.
Cutting
Interior leather and faux leather are cut single-ply with the piece properly oriented, because the grain and marks show on the dashboard. The KURIS Cutty optimises placement piece by piece. More under industrial cutting.
Frequently asked questions
Are headliners and carpets sewn? Not much. Headliners and carpets are mostly glued or thermoformed; sewing in the interior is concentrated on pieces covered in leather and faux leather.
Why an electronic flatbed if my runs are short? Because the tolerance doesn’t depend on the run: if the seam doesn’t fall into the substrate groove, the piece is no good even if it is the only one. A machine that repeats the stitch length saves you leather.
Cylinder bed or post bed for a gear lever gaiter? Cylinder bed when the piece is tubular and sewn from the inside; post bed when it has volume upwards and has to be turned around the needle.
Can you advise me without visiting you? Yes. Send us a photo of the piece, the material and thickness, and we will suggest a machine with videos of it working on something similar.
Tell us about your piece
We analyse the piece, material and production before recommending anything. Request technical advice.
Other applications: seats · airbags, seat belts, steering wheels and soft tops · all automotive machinery.
Do you have a specific seat, panel or interior piece? Send us your case with photos of the material and the seam, and we will tell you which machine fits.