Non-Asbestos Organic (NAO) Disc Pad Wear Behavior: Divergence of Thickness Loss and Weight Loss

There is anecdotal evidence that disc pad wear numbers measured in thickness loss and disc pad wear numbers measured in weight loss do not show the same wear trends after wear or performance testing. However, research papers on this topic are difficult to find. Therefore, this investigation was undertaken to study and document this behavior in detail on high-copper, low-copper and no-copper (or copper-free) NAO pads. In all cases, thickness loss measurements are found to be substantially lower than expected from the weight loss data according to the SAE J2522 test schedule. This divergence is caused by pad swelling in the pad layer adjacent to the friction contact surface during brake testing at high temperatures. In addition to formulation changes, disc pad processing conditions such as mixing time and hot molding pressure are found to affect pad swelling. As pad physical properties, especially in the layer adjacent to the friction contact surface, are expected to dynamically change during braking due to the pad swelling, one has to seriously question any attempt to correlate physical properties of unused pads to brake performance and squeal generation. Detailed characterization of the dynamic changes taking place in the pad during testing/usage is recommended to gain better understanding and better prediction of brake performance and squeal.