ABSTRACT

 An overview of a new asbestos free brake pad production using velvet tamarind shell and seed as reinforcement materials. This was done to exploit the characteristics of velvet tamarind which are largely found in Africa and also to reduce the high rate of cancer in our various communities. A brake pad was produced using Velvet tamarind as a base material following the standard procedure employed by the manufactures. The Velvet tamarind (shell and seed) was sieved into sieve grade of 100um. The sieved material was used in production of brake pad in weighed ratio. The velvet tamarind seed and shell powder were segmented into different samples, A, B and C respectively. Each of the segmented samples of both the velvet tamarind seed and shell powder underwent various mechanical test like Hardness, compressive strength, tensile strength, coefficient of static friction and wear rate tests. The velvet tamarind seed samples A, B, and C has hardness value of 105.5HRN, 82.7HRN and 95.3HRN, compressive strength of iliMpa, 72Mpa and 8lMpa, tensile strength of 29Mpa, 40Mpa and 23 .5Mpa, coefficient of static friction of 0.47, 0.43 and 0.39 and wear rate of 0.33, 0.301 and 0.27 respectively, while the velvet tamarind shell samples A, B and C has hardness values of 97.2 HRN, 89.01 HRN and 101 HRN, compressive strength of 97Mpa, 70Mpa and lOiMpa, tensile strength values of 22.5Mpa, 37.3Mpa and 27.3Mpa, coefficient of static friction values of 0.61, 0.44 and 0.49, wear rate of 0.39, 0.301 and 0.335 respectively. The comparisons of the results of the Velvet tamarind pads can be used as possible alternative to the imported pads.