Mineral fibre reinforced friction composites: effect of rockwool fibre on mechanical and tribological behaviour

Rockwool fibre, which is the important one of mineral fibres, shows tremendous potential as reinforcing components in composite materials. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of rockwool fibre on physical, mechanical and tribological properties of friction composites. The friction composites were fabricated by a compression molder and evaluated by using a friction test machine. The experimental results show that friction coefficient of all specimens has an obvious increasing trend with the increasing of test temperature, the heat fade doesn't occur in the test processes, and the existence of rockwool fibre could remarkable increase friction coefficient and restraint the heat fade at high temperature. Specimen F-3 containing 9 wt% rockwool fibres has the lowest wear rate, and presents best wear resistance. The worn surfaces morphologies were using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for the sake of the tribological behavior and wear mechanism. The results reveal that the specimen F-3 presents a smoother friction surface with larger stable contact plateaus.