Wear Rate Analysis of Ceramic Coated Brake Lining Material

Brake lining is a layer of hard material attached to a brake shoe or brake pad to increase friction against the drum or disc. Asbestos, which was the conventional brake material, has an optimal performance in wear rate and thermal resistance but due to serious health-related hazards, asbestos became obsolete. This led to the development of eco-friendly brake materials. Lot of research has been going on with Non-Asbestos Organic materials (NAO) including non-metallic, semi-metallic, fully metallic and ceramic materials. Among that, Ceramic materials are nowadays popularly used as brake friction materials. This is because that the ceramic material possesses high strength and hardness, superior wear and abrasive resistance, withstands high temperature and thermal shock. In this paper the effect of ceramic coating on asbestos brake lining is investigated. The role of ceramic abrasives including Alumina (Al₂O₂) and Zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) as a ceramic coating on the surface of asbestos brake lining has been carried out experimentally. The ceramic material was deposited on the layer of asbestos brake lining by plasma coating process. Several samples were prepared with different thickness (25μ, 35μ and 45μ) and wear characteristic were analyzed using abrasive wheel testing machine which is commonly used to test the abrasive resistance of solid materials. The results were compared with the standard sample (asbestos brake lining) and it was found that the ZrO₂ coating on the surface of the asbestos brake lining of 45 microns thickness coating has shown reduced wear than the other.