Performance of friction materials based on variation in nature of organic fibres Part I. Fade and recovery behaviour

The loss in braking effectiveness at elevated temperatures and the revival of the same at lower temperatures is referred to as fade and recovery, respectively. These characteristics are of decisive importance in the performance evaluation of friction materials. The present paper deals with the influence of four selected organic fibres, viz. Aramid (AF), PAN (poly-acrylo-nitrile), carbon (CF) and cellulose (SF), on the mu-fade and mu-recovery of friction composites. It was observed that the type of fibre significantly influenced the mu-fade and mu-recovery behaviour. It was observed that the carbon fibre based composite showed the highest resistance to mu-fade whereas the composite based on cellulose fibre showed the least resistance. The recovery behaviour of all the composites was more than 100% and the extent depended on the type of fibre inclusion. The composites containing AF and SF showed the highest and the lowest wear resistances, respectively, while the highest and the lowest mu were recorded for SF based and CF based composites, respectively. SEM analyses of the worn surfaces proved to be useful in correlating wear of the composites to the topographical changes on the surfaces. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.