Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Mitsuhiko Nakagawa

Fumiaki Nitto

Yukinori Yamashita

Hiroya Kishimoto

Masanori Ibuki

Shiro Nakajima

Toshikazu Kogetsu

Keisuke Fujiki

Hatsuo Murakami

A pad for disk brakes for controlling the revolution of revolving parts of vehicles and machines that has improved heat resistivity in an underlayer material interposed between a friction material and a backing plate to be used under heavy-load conditions in particular. The underlayer material includes linear or branched plastic having a melting temperature of 200&deg; C. or higher at normal pressure. The underlayer material may comprise not only a single layer but also a plurality of layers having different composition to enhance the effectiveness.

Disk-brake pad

A feed device which can feed a friction material mixture into a mold so that its thickness will be uniform in the mold to improve the quality and stability of the friction member obtained by heating and pressure-molding the material mixture in the mold. The feed device has a feeder for feeding a friction material mixture supplied from a constant-feed device at a constant rate to a designated area. The feeder comprises a main conveyor and sub-conveyors provided right under the delivery end of the main conveyor and inclined with respect to the main conveyor. The material mixture is partially dropped from the delivery end of the main conveyor onto the sub-conveyors, and fed to the delivery ends of the sub-conveyors and dropped into a mold having a hood. The shape of the delivery end of the feeder can be adjusted substantially to the arcuate shape of the mold cavity. By further moving the feeder and the mold relative to each other in the X-axis direction, the thickness of the material fed into the mold will be even more uniform.

Device for feeding a mixture of friction materials

Constant-rate feeder of powdery material and method for producing

An abrasion evaluation test method is applicable to a case where a rotating disk and a friction member to be brought into sliding contact with the disk contact and abrade each other even while a brake is not applied due to vibrations and mounting errors. The disk is an actual disk, and the friction member is a test piece which is smaller than the actual friction member. The test piece is pressed against a frictional surface of the disk at a predetermined position, thereof. The abrasion of the disk is measured with respect to a portion of the frictional surface that is out of contact with the test piece, while the abrasion of the friction member is obtained from the difference in thickness of the test piece before and after testing.

Abrasion testing method

A friction material is so manufactured that a hygienic environment can be maintained while simultaneously reducing the brake noise without reducing the friction coefficient of the brake pads made of the present material. The friction material is granulated or agglomerated by a first binder which binds one or more inorganic substances having a plane netlike crystal structure into granules which are deformed so that the particles have a flat particle orientation in the resulting granules. The flat particle orientation is achieved by the application pressure and/or heat during the formation. The granules are then embedded in a second binder forming a fibrous matrix for forming the brake pad material. The inorganic substance or substances forming the particles having the plane netlike crystal structure, promote a microseparation in the friction surface in response to the application of a brake force. The microseparation effectively prevents brake noise.

Friction material and method of manufacturing such material

A friction material for making brake pads or brake disks is formed by mixing metallic fiber and/or aramid fibers as a main component, a filler material and a binder agent for binding the main component and the filler. The metallic fiber includes at least copper fibers and/or copper alloy fibers. The filler includes one or more inorganic substances having a plane netlike crystal structure. The inorganic substances having the plane netlike crystal structure include mica, talc, vermiculite, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, agalmatolite, kaolin, chlorite, sericite, iron hydroxide, and montmorillonite.

Friction material for making brake pads

A friction member has an improved anticorrosiveness and an improved shearing strength. For this purpose, the friction member includes a cured organic film (2) formed on a surface of a backing plate (1) and sandwiched between an adhesive layer (3) on a friction material (4) and the backing plate. The film (2) has a thickness sufficient to protect the backing plate (1) against corrosion. The organic film (2) is not affected by heat and/or pressure during the bond forming molding of the backing plate (1) and the friction material (4), so that the anticorrosiveness and the shearing strength of the friction member is improved.

Method for producing a friction member especially for a brake

A feeding device having a hopper for storing and feeding a material having a low flowability such as powder, fibers or a mixture thereof. Comb-shaped obstruction plates are provided at the outlet side of the hopper so as to be slidable toward and away from each other to close and open the outlet opening. The slidable obstruction plates may be replaced with a single non-slidable plate having a plurality of openings. When in a stationary state, the material is prevented from dropping due to friction between it and the obstruction plate. The hopper may have its outlet opening elongated in one direction, with the area of the outlet opening being larger than half the area of the inlet opening.

Powder feeding device

A friction brake material contains fibers, graphite and a binder. All or part of the graphite is physically combined with one or more metals or alloys which are softer than steel to form a first combination or mixture. A separate combination or mixture is formed to include friction increasing fibers in a binder. Both mixtures are then combined to form the friction brake material which has an ability to cause substantially less creaking noise upon brake application as compared to differently prepared friction brake material.

Friction material and method of making such material

A friction material particularly useful for vehicle brakes comprises a friction material body including a plurality of steel fibers. Each steel fiber includes at least 0.07% by weight of sulphur, at least 0.10% by weight of phosphorus, or at least 0.15% by weight of both sulphur and phosphorus. The friction material exhibits high friction coefficients and less abrasion with respect to materials against which it bears as compared to conventional wear materials utilizing steel fibers.

Friction material using steel fibers

A friction material having particular use in brake pads for motor vehicles. The material includes iron powder as its chief constituent. In addition, the material contains phosphorous (P) of 0.02% or more of sulfur (S) of 0.02% or more or combined P and S of 0.03% or more.

Growing community of inventors

Itami, Japan

Mitsuhiko Nakagawa