TMD Friction of North America announced that its premium air disc brake pad friction material, Textar T3070, has met the FMVSS 121 dynamometer requirements of TMC’s Recommended Practice #628, “Aftermarket Brake Lining Qualification,” as verified by SAE’s Performance Review Institute.
In addition, TMD said its premium drum brake lining, Textar T5000, has also passed RP 628 qualification testing for standard 16.5×7 drum brakes. Together, these two products offer a TMC-approved replacement option for newer tractor designs with air disc brakes on steer axles and drum brakes on drive axles – a configuration recently released as standard or optional on all major truck manufacturers’ vehicles, according to TMD.
Compatibility issues facing operators of vehicles with different brake designs on front and rear axles was a major reason TMD developed and certified to aftermarket standards a disc brake pad formulated to replicate the performance of drum lining material. Tom Green, TMD’s general manager, explained, “The driving force behind our pursuit of TMC’s approval is that we believe the growing number of air disc brakes in the North American market could trigger a rash of disc/drum brake compatibility issues, including rotor cracking and pre-mature wear. Also of concern is the entrance of potentially inferior aftermarket disc brake pads.”
According to the company, the key to TMD’s T3070 air disc pad formulation is that its high-energy performance “matches” the high-energy performance of typical North American drum brake linings – ensuring compatibility between two types of brakes that can cause problems for truck operators.
Jim Clark, director of engineering for TMD, said, “Disc and drum brakes differ in both the way they mechanically react to higher temperatures, and the type of linings that are typically used on them. Disc brakes generally have metallic type linings that continue to produce friction at high temperatures, while drum brakes typically use non-metallic linings that lose torque, or ‘fade,’ at high temperatures. The T3070 pad chemistry is formulated to give significantly longer life, reduced rotor scoring and cracking, and improved compatibility to North American drum brakes, when compared to other available disc brake pads.”
