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News/Press
Resource Article
Race Tech Magazine
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Turning
up the heat
Alan Lis takes a look at Pagid’s
groundbreaking work on ceramic friction materials.
Founded in 1948 in Essen, Germany, Pagid is one of the
oldest OE manufacturers of friction materials in Europe.
In 1981 Pagid became part of the Rütgers Automotive
group along with Cosid, Frendo and Cobreq. Nowadays this
group is itself part of the German based TMD Group (Textar,
Mintex, Don), making it an element of an international
organization with a worldwide influence.
BT Bremsen is Pagid’s high performance and racing
division. On the road, BTB supplies high performance friction
materials to sports car manufacturers such as Aston Martin,
Audi, Ferrari and Porsche. In racing its products are
used at all levels from the club-racing competitor up
to professional and factory-backed GT, sports car and
touring racing teams.
The Pagid brand is probably best known for its activities
in endurance racing with Porsche in Europe and in the
USA where there is a dedicated operation, BT (Brake Technology
of America) based in Cape Coral, Florida.
Pagid’s American reputation is also based on successes
with US teams and manufacturers, including a Daytona 24
Hour win with the GM Racing Chevrolet Corvette in 2001.
It also boasts numerous ALMS and Grand-Am series wins
with the Dyson Racing sports prototype team, a highly
successful association with Roush racing in the Trans-Am
series in the mid 1990s, and forays into NASCAR racing
where its pads are used by a number of competitors in
road circuit events.
While the main racing activities are in Europe and the
USA, there are also developing markets in Asia and Australasian
in the touring car, GT and V8 Supercar classes.
Pagid’s close relationship with Porsche began in
the early 1990s with the development of dedicated brake
pads for the sports car manufacturer’s SuperCup racing
cars. Since that time it has had an exclusive agreement
to provide brake pads for that series, for Porsche’s
other factory racing projects and its road cars. The association
has led it into ground breaking development programmes.
Dieter Goldbach, President at BT Bremsen, says, “Through
our relationship with Porsche we have, in the past few
years, been working on ceramic pads and discs for road
cars like the GT2, GT3 and the new Carrera GT. With Porsche
we have also developed a friction material that is used
in the ceramic clutch in the Carrera GT. Our very latest
development, ceramic-based friction materials for use
with steel discs, has also come out of this programme.”
The very high thermal capacity of ceramic-based materials
means that, unlike organic based materials, they are not
affected by any heat levels normally generated by a car
and have proved to be ideal for high performance applications.
The development work on these materials has also shown
potential advantages for the use of ceramic-based materials
with steel discs and in the near future Pagid will be
introducing new pads that have resulted from this experience.
Goldbach explains: “The pads we use with steel discs
have a ceramic content but they are not pure ceramic.
A ceramic disc does not store heat like a steel disc –
it transfers a lot of heat into the pad so we have had
to develop a new kind of pad that can handle high disc
surface temperatures.”
Of course this has implications for the other parts of
the braking system. In Goldbach’s view, the brake
equipment manufactures must accept that that high performance
brake systems can cause some heat problems, especially
with the brake fluid. “I think the caliper manufacturers
need to look at their designs to help in this regard,”
he says. “Today it’s possible to make pads that
can handle far more thermal load that the rest of the
system can handle.”
Nevertheless, Goldbach is convinced hat ceramic and ceramic-based
materials are the way of the future for both the road
and the track. “Ceramic discs and pads have an important
advantage over carbon in their cold friction characteristics,”
he says.
“Carbon discs and pads will only work properly within
a limited temperature window. If they get too hot, the
wear rate goes up; if they are too cold, the friction
co-efficient is reduced. Also, the weight of a ceramic
disc is only a fraction of the weight of a steel disc
and not significantly heavier than a carbon disc.
“For racing, ceramic brake technology needs to be
slightly different to the way it has been made to work
on road cars, but I think in a year o two you might see
Porsche and others using ceramic brakes in races.”
When Pagid’s ceramic development programme started
five years ago, it was a highly confidential project.
Like all brake pad manufacturers, Pagid’ method of
attaching its friction material to the metal backing plate
is also a sensitive area. Nevertheless, Goldbach offers
a glimpse of how it is done:
“Like all other manufacturers we have a special patented
method,” he says. “High pad temperatures can
lead to problems in the binding of the friction to the
metal backplate, especially with ceramic brake pads. Our
attachment method is a special mechanical arrangement
that penetrates deeply into the construction of the pad.
“The temperatures generated in racing and high performance
braking can lead to cracks appearing in the friction material.
Our patented attachment method means that the material
will stay solid on the back plate without harming the
disc and guarantees that the brakes will work properly.
We call it out ‘Safety Lock’ system.”
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PAGID racing
pads are developed for high performance events. Motorsport is
dangerous. PAGID racing pads are sold without warranty, expressed
or implied. No warrant or representation is made as to this
product’s ability to protect the user from injury or death.
The user assumes that risk.
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