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Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-11-04 Origin: Site
Electric vehicle interiors are brutal environments for printed labels. Cabin surfaces reach 60°C and higher in summer sun, drop below freezing in winter, get wiped with cleaning chemicals, and are flexed, folded and abraded by passengers every single day. A warning label that looks fine in the showroom can be illegible — or peeling off — within a year.
This case study walks through how MAC Labels engineered, tested and produced the interior labeling set for the rear seat-back table used in ZEEKR electric vehicles: a bilingual safety warning label and a set of clear capacitive touch-sensor overlays, both built for 7-year service life on leather-textured surfaces.
Bilingual WARNING label installed on the back of a ZEEKR front seat, on the rear seat table panel
The part is an electrically operated folding table mounted on the back of the front passenger seat. Passengers unfold it to eat, work or hold devices while the vehicle is in motion.
Two label types sit on this assembly:
A bilingual (Chinese/English) WARNING label carrying eleven safety instructions — from pinch hazards during table switching to the 15 kg maximum load — required for user safety compliance.
Clear and black ZEEKR touch-sensor overlays: small die-cut parts that carry the capacitive touch icon and ZEEKR wordmark on the leather-wrapped surfaces around the table.
The ZEEKR rear seat table substrate before labeling — leather-textured, curved and contoured
Neither label is decorative. The warning label is a safety communication surface that must stay legible for the life of the vehicle. The touch overlays are functional interface elements that passengers interact with directly.
The customer specification was explicit:
Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
High temperature exposure | 60°C for 96 hours |
Low temperature exposure | −20°C for 96 hours |
Service life | 7+ year durability warranty |
Surface | Leather-textured, waxed interior trim |
Geometry | Curved, contoured panel — not a flat surface |
Content | Bilingual print, 11 pictogram lines, fine text |
The leather surface is the detail that matters most. Interior trim leather is finished with wax and release agents to achieve its look and feel. Those same agents are exactly what prevents adhesive from wetting out onto the surface. A label construction that bonds beautifully to ABS plastic can lift at the edges on waxed leather within weeks.
Most printed warning labels are built on generic paper or thin PET with a general-purpose adhesive. On this application, five failure mechanisms were in play:
Waxed leather surfaces — the release agent layer blocks adhesive wet-out, causing edge lifting and eventual peel-off.
Temperature cycling — a cabin that swings from −20°C to 60°C works every adhesive interface like a fatigue test.
Sunload and UV — inks fade and unprotected film yellows; the yellow warning header band is especially vulnerable.
Abrasion from use — the table is folded, leaned on and wiped; unprotected print scuffs off.
Fine bilingual text — an eleven-line warning in two languages printed small must survive all of the above without becoming illegible.
Peel testing the warning label directly on the leather table surface — adhesion on waxed leather was the first problem to solve
Rather than selecting a construction from a datasheet, we ran candidate label samples directly on the actual table assembly. Multiple material constructions were applied to the same leather-textured part, numbered, and cycled through the test plan side by side.
Multiple candidate label materials applied to the actual ZEEKR seat table part for side-by-side testing
This approach surfaced problems a datasheet never shows: how each adhesive wetted out over the leather grain, how edges behaved on the curved contour, and how each construction handled the surface wax. It also let the customer sign off on a construction they had physically seen survive their own test conditions.
Two builds came out of the testing matrix:
Label | Face stock | Printing | Overlaminating film | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Warning label | 3M™ 5018 white base film | HP Latex | 3M™ 3699 protective overlaminate | Bilingual safety warning, 11 pictogram lines |
Clear ZEEKR overlay | 3M™ 3699 clear film, printed | HP Latex | 3M™ 3699 clear overlaminate | Capacitive touch icon + ZEEKR wordmark on trim |
The 3M Scotchcal film material used as the face stock base, alongside finished warning labels
The logic of each layer:
3M 5018 white base film provides a dimensionally stable, opaque white face for the dense bilingual print.
HP Latex printing delivers water-based, scratch-resistant ink with fine detail — critical for the small bilingual text and pictograms — without the solvent residue of eco-solvent systems, which matters inside a passenger cabin.
3M 3699 overlaminate seals the print against abrasion, cleaning chemicals and UV. On the clear overlay version, the same 3699 in its transparent form protects printed graphics while keeping the leather texture visible through the part.
Both constructions carry the same 7-year outdoor-class durability — far beyond what the cabin environment will ever demand.
Every construction passed the customer's full test plan before volume production:
Temperature and humidity cycling chamber used for the 60°C/96h and −20°C/96h exposure tests
High temperature: 60°C for 96 hours — labels held full adhesion on the leather surface with no edge lifting, no adhesive bleed and no ink change.
Low temperature: −20°C for 96 hours — no cracking, no brittleness in the overlaminate, no adhesion loss after return to room temperature.
Accelerated aging at 70°C — additional elevated-temperature conditioning on the actual part, monitored through extended soak cycles well beyond the 96-hour requirement.
70°C accelerated aging test — label applied to the actual assembly, tracked through extended soak cycles
Post-test inspection included peel checks by hand across every edge, print-legibility verification under shop lighting, and surface wear inspection of the clear overlays:
Post-test wear inspection of the clear ZEEKR overlay on the leather surface after cycling
The adhesion challenge on waxed leather was tracked separately with dedicated peel samples:
Dedicated adhesion test on the waxed leather surface — a clear overlay sample lifted cleanly to inspect the failure interface
The warning label itself carries eleven bilingual safety instructions, each with an ISO-style pictogram:
Do not insert body parts during table switching — pinch hazard
Do not use the table while the vehicle is moving
Fasten your seatbelt when using the table
Adult supervision required for children's use
Ensure the table is fully closed and locked before folding or flattening the passenger seat
Additional closing check for configurations with second-row rotating seats
Ensure no other items are placed on the table before closing
Do not lean against the table or place objects over 15 kg
Electrically operated — do not force manual opening or closing
Do not insert body parts during the tabletop switching process
Scan the QR code on the packaging box or warranty card for full operation guidelines
Finished bilingual warning labels — print quality check on stacks and fanned samples
Every line is printed in Chinese and English at a size that remains legible after 7 years of cabin exposure — which is why the overlaminate decision was not optional.
The ZEEKR touch icons on the leather-wrapped trim are capacitive touch-sensor indicators: they show passengers where to tap to control the table. These parts were die-cut to shape on the same HP Latex + 3M 3699 construction:
Die-cut ZEEKR touch-sensor logo labels on liner, ready for application
For these parts, the leather substrate posed the same adhesion challenge — compounded by the fact that touch overlays get direct finger contact thousands of times over the vehicle's life. The 3M 3699 clear overlaminate provides the abrasion face; the tested adhesive system provides the bond.
Parameter | Warning Label | Clear ZEEKR Overlay |
|---|---|---|
Face stock | 3M 5018 white film | 3M 3699 clear film (printed) |
Print process | HP Latex, water-based ink | HP Latex, water-based ink |
Overlaminate | 3M 3699 protective film | 3M 3699 clear protective film |
Adhesion surface | Leather-textured trim, waxed | Leather-textured trim, waxed |
High temp test | 60°C / 96 hours — pass | 60°C / 96 hours — pass |
Low temp test | −20°C / 96 hours — pass | −20°C / 96 hours — pass |
Accelerated aging | 70°C extended soak — pass | 70°C extended soak — pass |
Durability warranty | 7+ years | 7+ years |
Content | Bilingual, 11 pictogram lines | ZEEKR wordmark + touch icon |
Three lessons from this project generalize to any interior automotive labeling program:
Test on the actual part, not on test panels. Waxed leather, textured TPO and coated plastics all behave differently. A construction validated on the real assembly is the only one worth approving.
The overlaminate is the difference between 1 year and 7 years. Unprotected HP Latex print is durable; laminated HP Latex print under 3M 3699 is cabin-proof.
Interior labels are compliance parts. A safety warning that fades or peels is a liability exposure, not a cosmetic issue — the material budget should reflect that.
Volume production of both label types runs under MAC Labels' standard QC regime: 100% incoming-to-finished inspection, batch traceability, print-density and legibility checks on every run, and die-cut dimensional verification. The same test conditions used for qualification are available for re-qualification whenever the customer revises artwork or substrates.
Volume production run of the bilingual warning labels after qualification
HP Latex water-based inks emit far less residual solvent than eco-solvent systems, which matters inside a sealed passenger cabin. They also deliver the fine detail the bilingual eleven-line warning requires, with strong scratch resistance once laminated.
The warning label needs an opaque white face for maximum contrast and legibility — 3M 5018 provides that base. The clear overlay must let the leather texture show through, so it uses the transparent 3699 construction as both face and laminate.
Leather finishes include wax and silicone-type release agents to create the surface feel. These agents prevent adhesive wet-out, so bonds that look fine at application lift at the edges within weeks. The solution is an adhesive system validated specifically on the finished surface, plus a verified surface-preparation step at the assembly plant.
Yes. The same 3M 5018 / HP Latex / 3M 3699 platform has been validated on textured plastics, coated TPO and painted surfaces. For any new substrate, we run candidate samples on the actual part through the same test plan before releasing the construction.
MOQ starts from a single piece for prototype and validation runs. Once the construction is released, volume production runs on the same qualified materials and process.
Yes. We provide the full qualification record — exposure conditions, durations and post-test inspection results — so your engineering team can file it with the vehicle program documentation.
If you are specifying interior warning labels, touch overlays or brand badges for a vehicle program, send us the surface type and your environmental test spec. We will run candidates on your actual part and come back with a qualified construction — usually within 24 hours.
MAC Labels — authorized 3M converter, HP Latex printing, cleanroom die-cutting, UL 969 (PGDQ2) and ISO 9001 certified.
