Effect of Various Synthetic and Natural Fibers for the Production of Copper-Free Automotive Brake Pads

In recent years, asbestos and copper free brake pads have attracted researchers due to its adverse environmental risks which requires manufacturers to seek a suitable replacement. It is essential to identify new combination of synthetic and natural fibers for the potential automotive brake pads. Experiments were planned to produce various frictional composites by using additives like carbon fiber and basalt fiber with standard additional ingredients like binders, fillers, abrasives and lubricants through hot pressing technique. Here binder act as epoxy resin is mixed with these frictional composites and graphite act as lubricant, vermiculite act as filler and alumina act as abrasives. The prepared form of polymer composite brake pad materials was tested as per ASTM and industrial standard practices like hardness, wear and friction followed by worn surface roughness were measured. Most noteworthy tribometric operating parameters like load (10-50N), sliding velocity (1-3m/s) were being considered and wear mechanism for various types of composites and their performances are being discussed. In order to prove the suitability of the brake pad, recovering synthetic and natural fiber composites were compared with two different commercially used pads of asbestos and copper. At the end of the research, the improvements are dedicated for producing composites to the automotive brake pads