Brakes in your vehicle ensure safety of the people on board as well as on road. If the brakes are too old and not working properly, it may prove fatal. In modern vehicles, different types of brakes are used. In this article, we discuss different types of brakes used in modern vehicles.
Organic brake pads
Earlier organic brake pads were made of asbestos material for dissipating heat adequately. However, the dust created by it is dangerous to the environment and health. So, asbestos has been replaced with organic or natural materials such as – glass, resin, rubber as the binding agents. This type of brake pads are light in weight, quite in operation, has low brake rotor wear and doesn’t produce noise.
Organic brake pads are idle for vehicles used in normal street driving, and work well in lower temperatures, as they are made of organic materials. However, because of the softness, they may wear out quickly, producing dust.
Ceramic brake pads
These brake pads perform well when compared to organic brake pads in almost all aspects, which include: in high temperature, in performance of brakes, reduced pad wear and less dust produced. This type of brake pads make very less noise and are potentially quite when compared to organic brake pads. Because of these reasons, ceramic brake pads are expensive when compared to other types of brake pads. These brake pads are recommended for high performance vehicles that operate at high speeds and have frequent stops. Ceramic brake pads are especially suitable for racing cars.
Metallic brake pads
These are most commonly used type of brake pads in today’s vehicles. Metallic brake pads are created by the unique blend of various metals. These brake pads offer high performance. They are also affordable and durable. They are exclusively designed for racing applications, where the operational temperature is high. Therefore, they are not suitable for street driving. These brake pads exhibit very weak low temperature braking ability, more brake rotor wear and extremely noise operation when compared to organic and ceramic brake pads. This type of brake pads are suitable for the vehicles that don’t witness aggressive driving.
Semi-metallic brake pads
Semi-metallic brake pads offer the same application as the metallic brake pads do at high performance. These brake pads are made from 30% to 65% metal and composite materials such as – carbon-fiber to alert its friction, optimum heat ranges and wear characteristics. Though these brake pads are durable as metallic brake pads, they may wear brake rotors faster and they do not offer good performance at lower temperature.