Production and characterization of brake pad developed from coconut shell reinforcement material using central composite design

In this work, locally sourced non-hazardous materials were used to produce brake pad using grey relational analysis (GRA) and experimental design via central composite design. Raw materials selected for production include coconut shell, epoxy resin (binder), graphite (friction modifier) and aluminum oxide (abrasive). Twenty-seven samples were produced separately using coconut shell as reinforcement material by varying process parameters. Formulation of the brake pads samples was done using rule of mixture and a weight percent of 52% reinforcement material, 35% binder, 8% abrasive and 5% friction modifier were used for the production. Grey relational analysis (GRA) shows that optimal process performance can be obtained using molding pressure, molding temperature, curing time and heat treatment time of 14 MPa, 140 °C, 8 min and 5 h, respectively. Optimized sample was produced using the optimal set of process parameters obtained from GRA and compared with commercially available sample produced by Ibeto Group. The experimental results showed that the performance of the optimized coconut shell-reinforced brake pad compared satisfactorily with commercially available samples and capable of producing less brake noise and vibration during application. Analysis of variance shows that curing time with a contribution of 30.38% and 31.40% have the most significant effect on the hardness and ultimate tensile strength of the coconut shell-reinforced friction material, respectively, while heat treatment time with a contribution of 46.3% and 24.23% have the most significant effect on the wear rate and friction coefficient of coconut shell-reinforced brake pad, respectively. The effects of all the factors on the properties of the friction materials are significant since their p values are greater than 0.010 (1%).