**6.4. Automotive applications**

Fiber based dry and soft textile fabrics or structures are the main interior materials for automobiles as well as trains, aircrafts and ships. This provides the users well-being and comfort. They also withstand daylight and ultraviolet radiation. The maintenance cost is low and easy to care. Two- and three-dimensional woven and knitted fabrics are used as airbag, and car seat parts which has better air permeability and moisture removal properties and car seat cover for the aesthetic and durability requirements. Two- and three-dimensional textile preform composite structures are widely used as parts of the suspension, gears, drive belts, tires, heater hoses, battery separators, brake and clutch linings, air filters, gaskets and crash helmets. Two- and three-dimensional warp knitted fabrics and nonwovens are widely used as preassembled interior components such as boot liners, seatbacks, door panels, oil and cabin air filters, molded bonnet liners, heat shields, wheelhouse covers, parcel shelves and shelf trim. Two- and three-dimensional braided preform and composites have been used in racing car bodies, structural members such as beams which are made up of foam cores over braided with a carbon preform structure, aprons and spoilers, connecting rods, drive shafting and flexible couplings. Also, car noses, monocoques and bumpers are made from braided carbon struc‐ tures. They reduce weight and improve the crash behavior [49, 149].
