New processing technology for manufacture of heavy duty metalloceramic brake pads

Abstract

Heavy duty metalloceramic brake pads are currently manufactured by compacting and sintering the metal powder mixture containing about 20–30% non‐metallic constituents. This technology suffers from certain limitations such as poor density, weak joining of backing plates with friction material layers, large consumption of hydrogen gas during processing, etc. etc. In order to overcome these limitations, new technology based on ‘hot powder forging’ has been developed in the present investigation. This technique offers efficient diffusion bonding between friction elements and the steel container which happens to become the backing plate of the brake pad assembly. The brake pads developed through this technology have been tested for military aircrafts namely AN‐32 and MIG‐27. It has been observed that the pads made through this technology are superior in performance in comparison with the pads made by sintering technology. Furthermore, the chemistry employed in the present technology is much simpler. This paper deals with detailed characterisation of brake pads suitable for AN‐32 and MIG‐27 aircrafts.

Keywords:

• Compacting and sintering
• Hot powder forging
• Aircraft brakes
• Friction and wear

We sincerely acknowledge the help and facilities provided by the Foundry and Forge Division, HAL Bangalore in carrying out the testing on subscale dynamometer in their Powder Metallurgy Shop.