Physico-Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Nanoclay Filled Friction Composite Materials Using Taguchi Design of Experiment Approach

In this article, nanoclay filled organic-inorganic fiber reinforced brake friction composites are designed, fabricated by compression molding and then investigated their physical, chemical, mechanical, and tribological properties. It is observed that density of the composites increased due to incorporation of inorganic contents (nanoclay/lapinus), which are quite heavier than organic contents (Kevlar/graphite) in the composites. Similarly, as far as mechanical properties are concerned the hardness, tensile strength, and flexural strength of the composites increased with the decrease in the nanoclay/lapinus fiber content but at the same time the organic contents, that is, both Kevlar fiber and graphite content are in the increased order of proportionality. Finally, Taguchi design of experiment technique (L-16 orthogonal array design) is implemented to evaluate the optimal factor settings simultaneously wear loss of the brake friction composites. In this experimental analysis, four input control factors have been taken such as composition, load, Speed, and distance at four levels each to obtain the wear rate and coefficient of friction of the fiber reinforced brake friction composites. The overall mean for the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the coefficient of friction and wear rate of the brake friction composites is found to be -29.20 and 96.72 db, respectively. At the end, a confirmation experiment is conducted between the experimental result and predicted theoretical result in order to validate the experimental result. (C) 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers