Experimental Investigation of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Steel Powder Filled Disc Brake Friction Materials

A suitable selection of a filler material enhances the mechanical and tribological characteristics of brake friction material. There are various types of fillers like organic, inorganic, metallic and natural fibres. Among these various types, metallic fillers are very important as they consist of different functional characteristics of brake friction material. Hence in this work, four friction composites are shown with identical parent composition (65 wt%) and varying steel powder from 0 wt% to 12 wt%, and barite from 35 wt% to 23 wt%, respectively in each composition, i.e., S0, S1, S2 and S3. All these four composites are characterised for physical and mechanical properties according to Indian Standards (IS). The coefficient of friction is investigated using a pin on disc tribometer. Finally, the correlation between physical properties and coefficient of friction is determined. It is concluded that inclusion of steel powder improved almost all the physical and mechanical properties. It is also observed that density, void content and hardness influence the coefficient of friction level.