The effect of the brake pad components to the some physical properties of the ecological brake pad samples

In this study, brake pad components in powder form such as miscanthus, cashew, alumina, phenolic resin and calcite, were used to manufacture ecological brake pads. In the brake pad applications trial and error method is often used to find the optimum proportion providing the best characteristics of the component in composite. The evaluation process became complicated and time consuming due to the number of components used for the manufacture of brake pad, randomly selected mixing ratios, many samples produced with trial and error method and a vast variety of results obtained from the measurements. Taguchi method was utilized in order to determine how the compositions of the brake pad components in the range of 5-20 wt. % had an effect on the properties of the brake pads. As a result of the experiments such as density, hardness, porosity and wear rate, the characteristics of the brake pad samples were more affected by the proportions of Miscanthus and phenolic resin in the mixture.