Friction material (metal reinforcement) analysis of brake pad for light rail train system

• Main Author: Abdul Rahman, Abdul Rashid
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: TL1-484 Motor vehicles. Cycles
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/703/1/24p%20ABDUL%20RASHID%20ABDUL%20RAHMAN.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/703/2/ABDUL%20RASHID%20ABDUL%20RAHMAN%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/703/3/ABDUL%20RASHID%20ABDUL%20RAHMAN%20WATERMARK.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/703/
• Institution: Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Brake friction material is very important in braking system where they convert kinetic energy of moving vehicles to thermal energy by friction during braking process. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimal friction materials composition of brake pad for light rail train system. Currently all the component of the train system including brake pad is imported from overseas such as Germany. Hence, this research is use to find the new formulation of the mixture ratio that may replace or compete with the commercial available brake pad. Three different testing which are density and porosity test, shore hardness test and wear test were done in order to select which metal is the most suitable for railway application. Different composition were used, (Cu30%BaSO430%), (Cu25%BaSO435%), (Cu20%BaSO440%), (Steel30% BaSO430%), (Steel25% BaSO435%), (Steel20% BaSO440%), (Al30% BaSO430%), (Al25% BaSO435%), and (Al20% BaSO440%) this study to determine the optimal properties with lower wear rate. The selected material were mixed and compacted into desired mould with 5 tons of pressure. The compacted samples were sintered using two different temperatures which is 600oC and 800oC. Steel30% BaSO430% results in the optimal composition since the result shows the lowest porosity, highest SD reading of shore hardness and the lowest wear rate. The samples were analysed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS) system to determine the morphology surface and overall composition of the samples. Comparing different sintering temperature, the sintered sample of 800oC shows lower wear rate than the sample sintered at 600oC. This is due to dense sample without crack showing by the samples sintered at 800oC than at 600oC.