Development of Friction Materials Regulations for Four Latin American Countries

Brakes are the most important safety device in a vehicle, however there are few barriers to manufacture, import, or sell friction materials in most of the countries, including USA. European countries, with the ECE R90 program, are a big exception. International Transport Forum published in 2016 the “Benchmarking of road safety in Latin America” report, it mentions that worldwide 17.5 people in every 100,000 die in road accidents, however Andean countries mortality rate is 23.4 and South American 21.0, considerably higher than the worldwide average. Organizations from four countries in Latin American (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico), the most populated countries in the region and where more vehicles are sold, 3.5 Million in 2019 according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), are concerned about protection of pedestrians, drivers, and passengers as well as protect those who acquire friction materials, so they have developed over time regulations to improve quality and reliability of friction materials used for original equipment and Independent Aftermarket (IAM). Regulations must go beyond quality control because they intend to supplement original design made in USA, Germany or Japan in order to support complex local geography, load carried beyond specification, and unforeseen driving habits. The four countries object of this paper have implemented some sort of certification process thru their government agencies, those processes must be improved, hopefully, using the experiences and lessons learned from each other. This paper explores the certification processes undertaken by those four countries, evolution of road safety based on statistics, and also proposes a discussion about how those countries should convey efforts to improve the process for the region for days to come to make brakes safer.