Investigation of Caryota urens fibers on physical, chemical, mechanical and tribological properties for brake pad applications

Abstract The idealization of this research work is to extend the utilization of the naturally available fibers as a key ingredient in the development of a non-asbestos free brake pad. The fibers used in this work are Caryota urens, which is found all over the Asian regions and abundantly available. The compression molding machine was used to develop the non-asbestos free brake pad. The fibers were added in weight percentages of 5, 10 and 15. The various physical, chemical, and mechanical properties were evaluated. Chase test rig was used to evaluate the tribological properties. The combination of Caryota urens fiber with the barytes had a more significant influence on the tribological properties. The brake pad composites with ten weight percent of Caryota urens fibers based brake pads possessed a good coefficient of friction values with less fade values and less fluctuations. Increasing the weight percentage of Caryota urens fibers in the brake pad formulation had a decreasing trend in the wear performance but increased recovery properties.