Re: [alfa] Stainless steel shims for brake pads

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:45:03 +1300 White Anthony <anthony.white@domain.elided> wrote:

> "if there were a good way to get ceramics to work, my wife's co-worker says
> that zirconium oxide (ZrO2) has a conductivity of 3W/mK."

> Richard, 

> If I were allowed a brief sojourn in Fantasyland, I might make shims or
> backing plates out of this stuff:
> http://www.mkt-intl.com/ceramics/machinable.html

> Machinable ceramic, working temperature to 1500 degrees celcius, thermal
> conductivity of 1W/mK.  In the real world, it looks too hard, and stainless
> steel looks the best option in terms of availability, machinability and low
> thermal conductivity.  

the other problems with ceramics are

1) corrosion problems when juxtaposed with ferrous metals

2) concerns about shattering; if a ceramic coating or shim
shatters, it probably won't disable the brakes immediately,
but you're back to square one on thermal conductivity,
and it'll be an arbitrary corner that stops working right,
with all the annoying problems that creates.

stainless looks pretty good. it'd be interesting to talk to one
of our digest advertisers who does performance stuff about
the prospect of having a performance carbon pad material
attached to stainless steel backing plates.

richard
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
    Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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