DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ASBESTOS FREE BRAKE PAD USING COCONUT SHELL AS A BASE MATERIAL

Abstract

Automotive brake pad was developed using coconut shell particles as an alternative to asbestos brake pad which has been found to be dangerous to health due to its carcinogenic nature. The coconut shell particles were screened to particle sizes of 300μm and 7100μm. The resin was blended with the agro-waste materials in appropriate ratio. The properties of the brake pads examined include: physical, mechanical, thermal, microstructure and wear properties. The result revealed that the oil soak and water soak increase as the particle size of the agro-waste materials increases; but the hardness, impact strength and wear rate decreases as the particle size increases. The samples containing smaller particle size (i.e. 300μm) gave the better properties in all. The results obtained showed that coconut shell base brake pad can effectively replace asbestos and palm kernel base brake pad in terms of higher thermal efficiency, water absorption rate and low wear rate