Comparative Study of Friction Coefficient and Wear in Brake Pads for Disc Brakes

Abstract

The growing global production and competitiveness of automotive components; as well as, improvements and new developments in terms of designs, materials and standards have provided a wide range of qualities in spare parts products for dealers and their customers. However, sometimes there are not quantitative parameters to compare among manufacturers or dealers do not have the equipment, time and expertise to supply this information. This study presents a comparative test of performance for six different types of brake pads as function of friction coefficient and wear. A test bed composed by an instrumentation system, a braking system and a drive-train system was developed based on standards, then data obtained from measurements of thickness, mass loss, temperature and electric power consumption were used to make calculations and comparisons in order to determine the optimum values. Finally, it was observed that the optimum performance behavior of a brake pad is given as a combination of the optimum values of desirable performance capabilities, like: Heat dissipation, friction coefficient and mass loss.