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Brake pads employing innovative hydraulic inorganic binders in place of common state-of-the-art thermosetting phenolic resins have been produced by means of a unique prototypal equipment and a distinctive manufacturing process. The unicity of the process enables us to exclude completely any thermal cycle in the manufacturing steps, with a considerable positive energy balance compared to the standard counterpart. Realized brake pads have indeed been successfully tuned to meet the braking performances of phenolic counterparts. In the present work our latest efforts in this field are illustrated, focusing our attention to three main areas of interest: performance, energy consumption, volatile organic emissions.

Organic brake pads for automotive can be defined as brake linings with bonding matrix constituted of high-temperature thermosetting resins. Bonded together inside the polymeric binder are a mix of components (e.g. abrasives, lubricants, reinforcements, fillers, modifiers…), each playing a distinctive role in determining the tribology and friction activity of the final friction material. The herein reported work presents inorganic “alkali-activated”-based materials suitable for the production of alternative brake linings (i.e. brake pads), by means of an unconventional low-temperature wet process. Exploiting the hydraulic activity of specific components when exposed to an alkaline environment, such peculiar inorganic materials are capable of coming to a complete hardening without the need of traditional high-temperature energivorous procedures.