Optimisation of hybridised cane wood–palm fruit fibre frictional material

Abstract

A brake pad has been developed employing a hybrid of cane wood and palm fruit fibre as filler material. The filler materials were extracted and processed; however, the palm fruit fibre was further treated with NaOH to remove oil remnants. After proper drying, the filler materials were ground and sieved into 150 µm particle size. The experimental design was set up using Central Composite Design in Design Expert software. The design varied the percentage composition of the filler materials and the binder. At constant press time of 8 min, press temperature of 160 ℃ and curing time of 2 h, 20 test samples were produced and tested for mechanical and physical properties. These include hardness, wear rate and water absorption. The Fourier transform infrared analyses showed that both cane wood and palm fruit fibres have active alcohol (O–H) and amine (C–N) functional groups. The experimental results were analysed and optimised using response surface methodology and validated using the analysis of variance tool of the Design Expert software. An optimal 30% resin, 3.48% palm fruit fibre and 6.52% cane wood composition by mass was developed, which gave a product with 98.25 MPa hardness, 4.13 mg/m wear rate and 0.494% water absorption. This result indicated that hybridised cane wood–palm fruit fibre is a good filler material for brake pad production.