Investigation of functional characteristics of composites used for brake pads

Abstract

Abstract The friction material used for the brake pads should have a low wear rate, outstanding thermal stability to hold the braking properties of the vehicle and coefficient of friction should constant under different operating conditions which include loads which applied, temperature, dry or wet braking environment and speed. Due to this reason, every newly developed friction material’s fabrication should undergo a series of experimental tests to evaluate the friction as well as wear properties. In this article a study of frictional and wear behavior of friction material for ecological brake pads of road vehicles discussed. In the formulation of the friction material shells as a filler, a small amount of metal, silicon carbide, graphite, resin and hexametiltetramine were used. The main objective of the paper refers to the investigation of the impact of the working regime on friction material’s tribological characteristics. In this sense, were studied the evolution of the coefficient of friction and the thermal field at the contact surface between the friction couplings, the influence of load on the friction coefficient at different speeds and the influence of load on wear rate at a constant speed. The knowledge of the functional properties of the newly developed friction material produced in the laboratory provides the possibility of pertinent assessments regarding the durability of the brake pads during operations, as well as on the quantity of wear products released into the atmosphere. The results concluded that as a filler material this species of shells may be used in the fabrication of brake pads for road vehicles.