Cementitious-Based Brake Pads Technology: Performance, Low Energy Consumption, Emission Drop

Brake pads employing innovative hydraulic inorganic binders in place of common state-of-the-art thermosetting phenolic resins have been produced by means of a unique prototypal equipment and a distinctive manufacturing process. The unicity of the process enables us to exclude completely any thermal cycle in the manufacturing steps, with a considerable positive energy balance compared to the standard counterpart. Realized brake pads have indeed been successfully tuned to meet the braking performances of phenolic counterparts. In the present work our latest efforts in this field are illustrated, focusing our attention to three main areas of interest: performance, energy consumption, volatile organic emissions. One selected exponent of our cementitious-based material is reported, demonstrating its capability of matching both standard OE and AM braking performances (investigated through a full scale brake dynamometer by SAE J2522 procedure), and its feasibility to be released as an actual AM material according to ECE R90 regulation (road test on vehicle). The energetic evaluation of the employed technology in term of prototypal manufacturing process and employed raw materials has been established, demonstrating the advantages of this new system compared to the standard one. Our investigation finally reports selected thermo-chemical analysis (TG-EGA and pyrolysis PY-GC/MS) devoted at identifying the key organic compounds potentially/eventually emitted during braking at various temperatures. Our material shows a dramatic drop of the volatile hazardous/organic compounds (VHCs/VOCs) released by a standard phenolic homologous, thus increasing the favorable characteristics of such inorganic hydraulic-binder brake pads and related technology.