Development of fly ash-based automotive brake lining

Coal-fired power plants all over the world generate huge amounts of fly ash each year, 70 million tons of which are produced in the United States alone. Only 40% of all fly ashes generated in the USA find beneficial applications and rest have to be disposed off, which is burden for the generation industry. Fly ash particles possess certain characteristics that make them suitable for use in friction composites as a filler material. An attempt has been made through this research to incorporate more than 50 wt% of fly ash particles in automotive brake lining friction composites. This paper presents the research carried out on development of friction composites, using fly ash obtained from a specific power plant in Illinois. Ingredients such as phenolic resin, aramid pulp, glass fiber, potassium titanate, graphite, aluminum fiber and copper powder were used in the composite development phase, in addition to the fly ash. The developed brake lining composites have exhibited consistent coefficients of friction in the range of 0.35–0.4, and wear rates lower than 12 wt%.