The Influence of Material Formulation and Assembly Topography on Friction Stability for Heavy Duty Clutch Applications

Maintaining a sufficiently porous structure in a wet friction material can be crucial to maintaining heat transfer from the bulk of the friction material into the fluid. Because of the lubricant flow from spinning plates and the fact that one side of the friction material is blocked by a steel core, porosity in the friction material must be maintained. Deposits directly from the oil, or transferred from the reaction plate, can accumulate in the friction material and/or seal surface porosity. When glaze forms on the assembly surface, a loss in friction coefficient will result. In this study, the proper selection of raw ingredients used in a friction material and the associated surface processing used in manufacturing the assembly will be shown to result in a material which has excellent friction stability and energy capacity compared to other wet friction materials.