REVIEW ON NATURAL COMPOSITE BASED BRAKE PAD MATERIAL

Friction materials have their significant role for braking and transmission in various machines and equipment. Their composition keeps on changing to keep pace with technological development and environmental/legal requirements. Earlier brake pads are made from asbestos and having good physical and chemical properties. But they are having many health hazards associated with asbestos handling. Hence it has lost favor and several alternative materials are being replaced these days. In this work a non-asbestos bio-friction material is enlightened which is developed using a banana stem fibre and crump rubber powder along with other ingredients. The specimen is made by compression mold process. The developed friction material samples are tested on a wear testing machine and found that composite samples have performed satisfactorily in terms of amount of wear and coefficient of friction when compared with premium asbestos-based brake pads. The same composite materials can be used to produce automobile disk brake pads.