Promaxon-D reinforced brake-pads to ameliorate the noise-vibration performance

A synthetic hydrated calcium silicate (commercially available as Promaxon-D) is used as one of the ingredient in some friction materials (FMs) since it has the ability to improve the porosity of the product due to its very special crystalline structure. The present work aims to evaluate the detailed noise and vibration (NV) performance of Promaxon-D (PD) based pads in comparison with the non-PD based ones. Five different types of Cu-free brake-pads were developed with identical composition but varying wt.% of PD particles (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20) and compensating the difference with barite, a space filler. After characterizing these brake-pads for physical and mechanical properties, NV performance was evaluated following SAE J2521 test standard and also the friction-performance based on the data generated on the same rig. As the PD contents increased, the brake NV performance improved considerably for the selected operating conditions. In view of the overall improvement in both noise and vibration aspects, the pad with 20 wt.% PD (P20) performed best with an overall ~ 3 dBA drop in noise level and ~11% drop in vibration vis-à-vis PD-free pads leading to a conclusion that 20 wt.% PD may be used for improving the NV performance of brake-pads and also increasing the friction level.