Characteristics of natural fiber reinforced composite for brake pads material

Brake pads are the main components that play important role in safety riding. It is used for reducing velocity and stoppingthe vehicleas expected. Generally, there are two basic materials for brake pads namely asbestos and non-asbestos. Asbestos brake pads is carcinogenic. This research aims to develop an eco-friendly alternative composite materialfor brake pads. The composite consists of coconut and bamboo fibers, alumina, magnesium oxide, and epoxy resin. Initial study of this researchis to measure hardness, coeficient of friction, and wear rate of the alternative composite material for brake pads. In this research, brake padsarefabricated under compression load of 1000 kgf,at temperature of 200°C for 20 minutes. Bamboofibersreinforced composite consists of 29% Natural fibers, 40% Epoxy, 6% MgO, 25% Al2O3 has temperature resitance of 251.53°C, hardness of 37.14 HRB, wear rate of 0.323 mm3/N.mm, and coefficient of friction of 0.454. Meanwhile, coconut fibersreinforced composite consist of 20% Natural fibers, 46% Epoxy, 6% MgO, 28% Al2O3 has temperature resitance of 250.56°C, hardness of 44.10 HRB, wear rate of 0.242 mm3/N.mm, and coefficient of friction of 0.46. Hardness number of both composites brake pads are lower than the commercial brake pads. However, wear rate and coefficient of friction of both composites brake pads are relatively similar to the commercial ones.