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Environmental and financial factors are leading developments in the automotive industry and friction materials are no exception. Different organizations around the globe are increasing their attention on fine dust emissions. End users are more and more focused on comfort and cost due to global economic conditions. Two of these factors are directly related to each other: comfort and fine dust. They are the result of tribologic mechanisms resulting from pad and disc wear. These mechanisms linked to friction performance are the consequence of the interaction between friction material surface and disc surface. This interaction forms the third body layer and extensive studies have been carried out on this. This paper describes a detailed characterization of a new group of developed fibres. This new family of fibres has been specially engineered to offer an enhanced friction material surface reinforcement due to the specially designed aspect ratio.

Friction performance is the result of the interaction between rotor and friction material surfaces. Kinetic energy has to be transformed into heat, plastic deformations, chemical reactions and wear debris. The later generates the formation of the so-called third body layer and its initiation, growth and degradation will generate the actual friction coefficient and vibrations behavior. Some raw materials seem to promote third body layer formation more than others. The composition of plateaus usually contains iron oxide, copper, carbon, silicon and calcium. Since copper free materials are under development, the importance of understanding the third body layer formation has become bigger. Promaxon® D is widely used in NAO non steel formulations. It is a calcium silicate with a special morphology that influences friction material at two levels: the macro -bulk- scale and the micro -surface- scale. Bulk effect is related to the volume and porosity degree of the friction material.