Development and Assessment of Composite Brake Pad Using Pulverized Cocoa Beans Shells Filler

Application of asbestos in friction material after a very long period is now discouraged due to its carcinogenic nature. There is need for alternative (human friendly) friction material. Hence the development of asbestos-free friction material from an agro-waste (cocoa beans shells - CBS) as filler element cum other additives was undertaken using powder metallurgy technique. The particulate size of the filler material considered was 300µm and epoxy resin was used as binder. The produced brake pad samples were analyzed by evaluating their mechanical, physical, and tribological properties. Based on the investigated properties of the developed brake pad, reducing the filler content increased the wear rate, tensile strength, compressive strength, while hardness, density, water absorption, oil absorption and thermal conductivity varied differently. Coefficient of friction increased with increase in the filler wt%. The results showed that CBS particles could be effectively used as replacement for asbestos in automotive brake pad manufacture.