Dry Sliding Wear Studies of Cu-Based Powder Metallurgy Brake Materials
A novel friction material based on Cu-based powder with several additional elements, such as Al, SiO2, Fe, graphite, Sn, Mn and MoS2, has been developed by PM techniques in order to study the wear to improve mechanical and tribological characteristics of train brake pads. The materials used were sintered at three different temperatures (850°C, 900°C and 950°C). A high pressure pad-on-disc braking tester was developed to test the wear behavior of these materials without lubrication. Wear was measured by microscopic examination of the pad after the tribometer test. The tests showed that the coefficient of friction (COF), wear rate and wear number were improved immensely by high temperature sintering. This shows that the sintering temperature level plays an important role in the performance of the braking material. In addition, the tribological and the mechanical properties were found to be temperature sensitive.