Material and Design Developing of Train Brake Block Using Natural Resource

• Main Author: NUGRAHA SETIANTO (NIM 13103015), TRI
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/9520
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Brake block is an important part of the train braking system. Compared with metallic brake block, composite brake block has several advantages such as: (1) lighter, so that composite brake block is easier to be installed, (2) low wear rate, (3) longer life cycle, and (4) Better ratio of price and life cycle. Developing composite brake block material is supported by available of natural resource in Indonesia. All of materials for producing composite brake block can get in Indonesia. Natural resource in Indonesia which can be benefited for the composite brake block is coconut fiber and coconut shell charcoal. In this final project, there are several step for research, they are: choosing brake block material, producing of specimen, testing and analyzing from the result of specimen testing. Development done by analyzing imported brake block then modifying composite brake block composition. Mechanical testing in this research are bending testing, compression testing, and friction testing. Next, author analyzing design of composite brake block with braking load using ANSYS 10. From analysis result, optimum percentage of coconut fiber for material modifying is 50% until 75%. Then, modifying using coconut shell charcoal will decrease mechanical properties of composite brake block. From production process, most optimum curing time is 120 minutes. Modified design of composite brake block is a design that omitting center groove. From ANSYS 10 analysis result, brake block without center groove have higher safety factor than previous design.