Technology
How paint protection film is built, and how it is measured
This page exists because a specification without a test method is a slogan. Here is the construction of a HAUT film, the ASTM methods its performance values are measured against, what each number changes on a real car — and, plainly, which values are in hand for the film sold in the United States and which are not yet.
- ASTM methods we publish against
- 7
- Thickest film — Master Plus
- 210 µm
- Master
- 195 µm
- Mist and Interior
- 160 µm
Construction
Four layers, four jobs
Almost every specification argument in this category comes from people comparing numbers that describe different layers. Read the stack first and the spec sheet stops being confusing.
- 01
Coating
The self-healing topcoat. An elastomeric, lightly crosslinked surface — warm it and the network's own elasticity pulls light marking back out. Thin by design: thickness added here would only add haze.
- 02
Base film — urethane
The impact layer, and almost all of the thickness. It takes the energy out of a stone by stretching and returning to shape, which is the property measured as tensile strength and elongation at break.
- 03
PSA glue
A pressure-sensitive acrylic layer tuned to hold through years of heat cycling and still release cleanly. Measured as 180° peel after a stated dwell, and as initial tack — the property an installer feels in the first ten seconds.
- 04
Your paint
Clear coat, base coat, primer. Everything above exists so that this stops being a consumable.
Why the topcoat is the layer you touch and never see
It is the thinnest part of the film and the only part exposed to wash mitts, brushes, bug acid and UV. Its hardness decides whether the car collects swirls; its elasticity decides whether those swirls close again.
Why the TPU layer is almost all of the thickness
Energy absorption is a volume property. A stone arriving at highway speed is stopped by the polyurethane stretching and returning — which is exactly the behavior tensile strength and elongation at break describe.
Why adhesive is a removal specification too
The adhesive has to survive a decade of heat cycling on a black hood in July and still release without lifting clear coat in year ten. Both ends of that requirement are one number: peel adhesion.
A diagram, not yet a data sheet
The stack above is drawn without figures, because no US data sheet states them yet. When one does, the layers are drawn to its numbers with its tolerance on the total. Until then the drawing shows the order of the layers and what each one is for — the difference between a diagram and an illustration is that we say which this is.
Published values
What each film carries today, and what is outstanding
Thickness and finish are the specification each film is made to, and they are on every product page. Every performance value is outstanding: the film sold in the United States is being tested at a US laboratory to the methods below, and each film's numbers go on its page when its report is in hand.
In hand: thickness and finish
Master 195 µm / 7.7 mil, Master Plus 210 µm / 8.3 mil, Mist and Interior 160 µm / 6.3 mil, Specter 190 µm / 7.5 mil, each with its finish. These are what the films are made to, and what you can hold a roll to today.
Outstanding: everything measured
Transmittance and haze (ASTM D1003), gloss (D523), tensile strength and elongation (D882), peel adhesion (D3330), bulk hardness (D2240) and UV weathering (G154). Nothing is estimated while the reports are out; the rows are simply absent.
Why the numbers came down
Until October 2026 this site carried values from the data sheets of a different product sold under this name in another market, tested to that market's national methods. They did not describe the film sold here. They were removed the day that was understood, rather than left up because they looked complete.
What goes back, and how
One film at a time, as its own report lands: the value, the method beside it, and the laboratory's basis — a minimum or a measured lot. A number never returns to this site ahead of the report that produced it.
Thickness and finish are the specification each film is made to. Performance values — transmittance, tensile strength, elongation, adhesion, hardness, weathering — are being measured on the film sold in the United States at a US laboratory, to the ASTM methods listed on the test-methods page. A value is published for a film only once that film's report is in hand, with the method beside it. Until then the row is left out rather than filled in.
Test methods
The seven methods every HAUT number will be measured to
ASTM International publishes the consensus test methods the US automotive and coatings industries run on. These are the seven HAUT publishes against — what each one does, and why the result matters once the film is on a car. They are also how to read any other brand's sheet.
- ASTM D6988ISO equivalent ISO 4593
Thickness of film and sheeting
Film thickness, measured with a calibrated contact gauge at set intervals across the web rather than at one convenient point. Quoted excluding the release liner, which is removed at installation.
Why it matters: Thickness is the number the whole category is sold on and the easiest one to round up. Measured across the web and quoted with a tolerance, it is a figure you can hold a roll to.
- ASTM D523ISO equivalent ISO 2813
Specular gloss at 60°
How much light the surface reflects at 60° to the normal, as a percentage of a polished black glass reference.
Why it matters: This is what separates gloss from satin from flat as a number rather than as an adjective, and it is the only way to know two satin panels will match.
- ASTM D1003ISO equivalent ISO 13468
Haze and luminous transmittance of transparent plastics
How much visible light passes straight through the film, and how much of it is scattered on the way — transmittance and haze, from the same instrument.
Why it matters: Transmittance is close to its ceiling for any clear polymer — reflection at the two air interfaces alone costs about 8%. Haze is the half that decides whether a film reads as a grey cast on white or silver paint.
- ASTM D882ISO equivalent ISO 527-3
Tensile properties of thin plastic sheeting
The force a strip of film carries before it breaks, and how far it stretches before that happens, pulled slowly in one direction.
Why it matters: A material-quality check, not an impact rating: it is measured slowly and in-plane, while a stone strike is fast and out-of-plane. It tells you the polymer is what it should be, and that the film has margin left at the twenty per cent stretch a bumper corner actually asks for.
- ASTM D3330ISO equivalent ISO 29862
Peel adhesion of pressure-sensitive tape
The force needed to peel the film back off a test panel at 180°, after a stated dwell time, per 25 mm of width.
Why it matters: The only figure on a sheet where more is not better: too low and a wrapped edge lifts, too high and removal fights the clear coat. It is an adhesion figure on a laboratory panel — removal in year ten also depends on the condition of the paint underneath.
- ASTM D2240ISO equivalent ISO 868
Durometer hardness, Shore A
How far a standard indenter presses into a molded specimen of the polymer under a fixed load. The method needs a specimen at least 6 mm thick, so it is run on cast resin — no durometer reading can be taken from a 200 µm film, and none from the topcoat.
Why it matters: It places the polyurethane in the firm-elastomer range: stiff enough to resist deformation under load, soft enough to stay conformable around a bumper corner. It is a bulk material-quality check and it says nothing about the surface or about self-healing.
- ASTM G154ISO equivalent ISO 4892-3
Fluorescent UV exposure
How the film changes after continuous cycles of ultraviolet light and condensation in a weathering cabinet — read as a change in yellowness index (ASTM E313) and in the optical and mechanical values measured before the exposure.
Why it matters: Yellowing is the classic way a protection film fails, and the warranty treats it in two halves: normal change over years is not covered, and yellowing that arrives far too early is. This is the laboratory method behind that distinction.
Every one of these numbers turns into something you can see on the car in year eight.
Which is why we would rather publish none than one we cannot stand behind
Side by side
Every film, by specification
Thickness, finish and warranty — what each film is made to and covered for. The performance columns return per film as the laboratory reports come in; we publish the gap rather than an estimate.
An em-dash means that film carries no specified value for the column, not that it performs badly. Thickness and finish are the specification each film is made to. Performance values — transmittance, tensile strength, elongation, adhesion, hardness, weathering — are being measured on the film sold in the United States at a US laboratory, to the ASTM methods listed on the test-methods page. A value is published for a film only once that film's report is in hand, with the method beside it. Until then the row is left out rather than filled in.
What we do not publish
What we have not measured yet, by name
A missing row means the laboratory value is not in hand, not that the film failed. Here is exactly what is outstanding on the film sold in the United States.
Optical: transmittance, haze, gloss
ASTM D1003 produces transmittance and haze from one instrument; D523 produces gloss at 60°. Haze is the half of D1003 that decides whether a clear film reads as a grey cast on white paint, and gloss is what makes two satin panels match. None of the three is published for any film until its report is in hand.
Mechanical: tensile, elongation, adhesion, hardness
ASTM D882, D3330 and D2240. Tensile and elongation are a material-quality check rather than an impact rating; peel adhesion is the one figure you want in the middle; Shore A is run on cast resin, not on the film. All outstanding.
Impact, puncture, tear and chemical resistance
ASTM D1709, D5420 and D1004 are what a film's chip resistance actually is, and chemical exposure is what a season of bug acid and alkaline shampoo does to it. None has a HAUT report, and none will be argued from thickness as if it were the same thing.
Weathering, and the layers inside the film
ASTM G154 UV exposure read as yellowness index and as the change in the optical and mechanical values above; and the thickness of each layer inside the stack. Both outstanding. The drawing on this page is a diagram of the build, not a measurement of it.
If a number matters to a job you are quoting and it is not on this site, ask us — we will tell you whether the report is in, and send it if it is.
Specifications, answered
Numbers are the argument. The install is the proof.
Every HAUT film carries the same 10-year limited warranty, and only a certified shop's work carries it.