Friction Material Reinforced With Biomimetic Dumbbell-shaped Jute Fibers

There have been many changes in manufacturing technology and market of friction material with reduction of energy sources and increase of environment pollution. So, the energy-saving and environment-friendly friction material has become an important properties of friction material. Fibers as reinforcement in friction material should meet some requirement in mechanical properties and, furthermore, they should have sufficient resource and have no pollution to environment. Therefore, it is very crucial to select the fiber. Compared with man-made fiber, jute fiber, a natural fiber, having rich resource and no harm to environment can benefit to the reduction of material and lower price of the friction material. Particularly, the strength of the natural fiber can meet the requirement generally. But, it is a fact that the interface strength between fibers and matrix is very low because the former is hydrophilic and the latter is hydrophobic and the stress in matrix could not be transferred by fiber efficiently. However, people can get some clues from the dumbbell-shaped structure of animal long bone. In this work, the dumbbell-shaped jute fibers were prepared and used as reinforcements in friction material in order to provide useful information for development, design and manufacture of a new type of friction material used in brake system of terrain-machines.The technical parameters for fabricating the friction material were determined. The effects of different modification methods of jute fibers, cotton fibers and wool fibers on mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. Phenolic resin as adhesive in friction material was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry method and rheological behaviors were measured. The parameters of moulding process were determined. Moulding temperature was 160±5℃and moulding pressure was 30MPa with a duration of 5-7min. In addition, both heat treatment and alkali treatment at room temperature were applied to the jute fibers and cotton fibers, at the same time, lipid layer of wool fibers were removed. It was...