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 five ASTM standards every published value on this site was measured against, and what each of those numbers changes on a real car.
- Published test methods
- 5
- Thickest film — Master Plus
- 210 µm
- Peel adhesion / 25 mm
- 8.4 N
- Shore A hardness
- 89
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.
- 0110 µm · 0.39 mil
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.
- 02130 µm · 5.1 mil
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.
- 0320 µm · 0.79 mil
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.
Nominal build, measured total
Where a film has a released data sheet, its layer figures are the sheet's own — Mist and Interior are drawn from coating 10 µm, urethane 130 µm and adhesive 20 µm, with the sheet's tolerance on the total. Where a film has no sheet, no layer breakdown is drawn at all. That is the difference between a diagram and an illustration.
Published values
Everything we have measured, in one place
These are the production-lot values from our technical data sheets. Every one of them appears on the relevant product page with the same method beside it.
- 210 µm
- Master Plus thickness — 8.3 mil ISO 4593
- 195 µm
- Master thickness — 7.7 mil ISO 4593
- 92.4 %
- Master Plus light transmittance ASTM D1003
- 91.9 %
- Master light transmittance ASTM D1003
- 30.6 MPa
- Master Plus tensile strength ISO 527-1
- 328 %
- Master Plus elongation at break ISO 527-1
- 8.4 N
- Peel adhesion per 25 mm ISO 29862
- 89
- Shore A bulk hardness ISO 868
Values are from the technical data sheet for each film. Testing is carried out at the production line to the standards listed — national methods that are adoptions of the ISO standards named on the test-methods page. Where an ASTM method is equivalent it is given there for reference; no value on this site has been re-run to ASTM, and we do not print an ASTM code as though it had been. Where a film has no measured value for a property, the row is left out rather than filled in.
Durability
Measured new, then measured again after the lab has finished
Every production batch goes to an independent accredited laboratory. It is tested new, then after 1,000 hours of continuous UV, and after fourteen days in direct contact with oil, gasoline and high-alkaline shampoo. The sheet equates those exposures to a car ownership lifetime and to five to seven years of ownership respectively.
| Property | New | After 1,000 h UV | After Oil, 14 days | After Gasoline, 14 days | After Alkaline shampoo, 14 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tensile strengthISO 527-1 | 30.6 MPa | 29.8 MPa97% retained | 30.1 MPa98% retained | 25.7 MPa84% retained | 26.9 MPa88% retained |
| Elongation at breakISO 527-1 | 328 % | 324 %99% retained | 328 %100% retained | 309 %94% retained | 201 %61% retained |
| Light transmittanceASTM D1003 | 92.4 % | 92.04 %100% retained | 91.98 %100% retained | 91.37 %99% retained | 92.05 %100% retained |
- Who runs it
- Independent accredited laboratory, on every production batch
- The UV exposure
- 1,000 hours of continuous UV — the sheet equates this to a car's ownership lifetime
- The chemical exposures
- 14 days of direct contact with oil, gasoline or high-alkaline shampoo — the sheet equates this to 5–7 years of average ownership
Read the shampoo column. High-alkaline shampoo takes a real bite out of elongation on both films — more than UV, oil or gasoline do — and that result is the reason the care page tells you to use a pH-neutral soap rather than whatever is cheapest at the pump. Publishing the column that argues against us is the only way the other four are worth anything.
Test methods
The five standards behind every number on this site
ASTM International publishes the consensus test methods the US automotive and coatings industries run on. These are the five that produce the values on our data sheets — what each one does, and why the result matters once the film is on a car.
- ISO 4593GB/T 7125 (Mist, Interior) · GOST 17035 (Master, Master Plus) · ISO 4593 · ASTM D6988
Thickness of film and tape
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.
- ISO 2813GB 8807 · ISO 2813 · ASTM D523
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 D1003ASTM D1003 · ISO 13468
Luminous transmittance of transparent plastics
How much visible light passes straight through the film. The same method also produces a haze figure, which we do not yet publish.
Why it matters: Transmittance is close to its ceiling for any clear polymer — reflection at the two air interfaces alone costs about 8%. It confirms nothing is absorbing light; haze is the half that decides whether a film reads as a grey cast on white paint.
- ISO 527-1GB/T 1040.1 (Mist, Interior) · GOST 14236-81 (Master, Master Plus) · ISO 527-1 · ASTM D882
Tensile properties of plastics
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.
- ISO 29862GB/T 2792 (Mist, Interior) · ASTM D3330 (Master, Master Plus) · ISO 29862 · ASTM D3330
Peel adhesion of self-adhesive 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 the 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.
- FINAT FTM 9FINAT FTM 9 · ASTM D6195
Loop tack
How firmly the adhesive grabs on first contact, before any dwell time.
Why it matters: Low tack is what lets an installer float and reposition a panel instead of committing on first touch. It is the property an installer feels in the first ten seconds of a job.
- FINAT FTM 14FINAT FTM 14
Dimensional stability
How far a fixed area of film moves after conditioning, measured separately along the web and across it.
Why it matters: Shrinkage is what pulls a wrapped edge back off a panel months after the install. It is the number behind edge lift that has nothing to do with the adhesive.
- ISO 868GOST 24621 · ISO 868 · ASTM D2240
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 195 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.
- DL/T 864DL/T 864
Water contact angle
The angle a water droplet holds against the surface, in degrees.
Why it matters: Above about 100° a surface is hydrophobic: water beads and rolls, taking road film with it. Below about 90° it wets out and sheets instead. This is the measured version of a claim most brands make with the word “beading”.
- QUVQUV accelerated weathering · ASTM G154 / E313
Yellowness index after accelerated weathering
How far the film shifts toward yellow after accelerated exposure to UV and condensation in a QUV cabinet.
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 rather than a claim about how our film will age — for a figure to be worth printing it has to be read off the film itself, and ours was probably read through the release liner, so it is listed as unconfirmed rather than published as a result.
- GB/T 2423GB/T 2423.1
Environmental testing — temperature
The surface temperature the film withstands, and for how long, without damage.
Why it matters: It is the ceiling for a heat gun and for a black hood in July. Exceed it and the topcoat is finished, which is why the care page gives a temperature rather than an adjective.
- Brush & heat0.1 mm copper brush, 10 strokes, then heat
Scratch repair
The surface is scratched with a copper brush in a circular pattern, then warmed, and inspected for whether the marking closes.
Why it matters: It gives self-healing an activation temperature instead of a promise. Below it nothing happens; at it, light marking closes. Warm water, sun on a dark panel or a heat gun kept moving all reach it.
Every one of these numbers turns into something you can see on the car in year eight.
Which is why they are worth checking before you buy, not after
Side by side
Every film, every measured property
Where a cell is empty, that property has not been measured on that film yet. We publish the gap rather than an estimate.
| Film | ThicknessISO 4593 | Finish | Light transmittanceASTM D1003 | Tensile strengthISO 527-1 | Surface hardnessISO 868 | Warranty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MasterThe everyday clear film — 7.7 mil, optically clear, self-healing. | 7.7 mil · 195 µm | High-gloss clear | 91.9 % | up to 29.1 MPa | 89 Shore A | 10 years |
| Master PlusThe heavy one — 8.3 mil, and the strongest film HAUT makes. | 8.3 mil · 210 µm | High-gloss clear | 92.4 % | up to 30.6 MPa | 89 Shore A | 10 years |
| MistSatin finish, clear film — turns gloss paint matte and protects it. | 6.3 mil · 160 µm | Satin — 28–35% gloss at 60° | — | ≥ 31.4 MPa | — | 10 years |
| VelvetTrue flat matte — no sheen at all. | — | Flat matte | — | — | — | 10 years |
| Interior6.3 mil clear film for piano black, screens and door cups. | 6.3 mil · 160 µm | Clear, high gloss | — | ≥ 34.3 MPa | — | 10 years |
| BreezeUV film for panoramic roofs — cooler cabin, view intact. | — | Cool blue tint | — | — | — | 10 years |
| SpecterTinted protection film — shade the paint without changing the color. | 7.5 mil · 190 µm | Tinted gloss — Grey (60% VLT) or Black (35% VLT) | Grey 60 % · Black 35 % | — | — | 10 years |
| Black GlossWet-look gloss black color PPF. | — | Gloss black | — | — | — | 10 years |
| Black MatteFlat black color PPF for a stealth finish. | — | Matte black | — | — | — | 10 years |
| CarbonCarbon-weave texture under a clear topcoat. | — | Carbon weave, gloss topcoat | — | — | — | 10 years |
An em-dash means we have not measured that property on that film yet, not that it performs badly. Values shown as “≥” are guaranteed minimums from a released data sheet; values shown as “up to” are the highest recorded across tested lots. Those are different kinds of number and comparing them directly will mislead you. Values are from the technical data sheet for each film. Testing is carried out at the production line to the standards listed — national methods that are adoptions of the ISO standards named on the test-methods page. Where an ASTM method is equivalent it is given there for reference; no value on this site has been re-run to ASTM, and we do not print an ASTM code as though it had been. Where a film has no measured value for a property, the row is left out rather than filled in.
What we do not publish
What we have not measured yet
A blank row means the laboratory value is not in hand, not that the film failed. Here is exactly which ones are outstanding and when they land.
Haze, and the yellowness index
Both were measured, on both clear films, before and after every exposure — and both are held back. The absolute figures on the sheet sit well outside what this category normally publishes, and the most likely explanation is a measurement taken through the release liner rather than a property of the film. They go on the site the day the laboratory confirms them, and not before.
Impact, tear, haze, gloss, abrasion and chemical resistance
All six have published ASTM methods and none has a finished HAUT data sheet. Two of them matter more than the rest: impact and puncture resistance (ASTM D1709, D5420) is what a film's chip resistance actually is, and haze is the half of ASTM D1003 that decides whether a film reads as a grey cast. We argue from thickness and from tensile properties because those are what we have measured — not because they are the same thing.
Per-lot layer measurements
We publish the nominal build for the topcoat and the adhesive, and we measure the total. We do not measure and publish an individual layer thickness lot by lot, so the layer figures in the drawing are labeled nominal wherever they appear.
Full data on every film
Master, Master Plus, Mist, Interior and Specter carry measured values. Velvet, Breeze and the color films currently carry thickness and finish only, because their data sheets are still being prepared.
If a number matters to a job you are quoting and it is not on this site, ask us — we will tell you whether we have measured it, and send the data sheet if we have.
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.