Stopping Cracks and Holes in Brake Lining Curing
Curing brake linings is a bit of a tightrope walk. If you crank up the heat too fast or the temperature hits the pad unevenly, you’re going to end up with thermal cracks and tiny holes (porosity) inside the material. It’s a nightmare because it completely ruins the strength of the pad. The trick to fixing this is using shortwave infrared (IR) lamps. They give us way more control over how deep the heat goes and how fast things warm up.
Getting the Heat Right
Here’s the thing: to stop those cracks, you can’t have a massive temperature gap between the surface of the lining and its core. Shortwave IR lamps pump out high energy that actually sinks into the material. By tweaking the wattage and moving the lamps a bit closer or further away, you can make sure the center of the pad hits the right curing temp before the surface gets too hot and starts shrinking. That’s how you stop those surface fissures from forming in the first place.
The Gear That Actually Works
We use high-output quartz halogen tubes for this. Why quartz? Because it can take the extreme heat without warping. Plus, the halogen cycle means the lamps actually last. On the technical side, you’ll usually see these wired with R7s or SK15 connectors. They’re snug. You don’t want something vibrating loose while the conveyor is humming along. Now, power density is your main lever here. A high-wattage tube lets you speed up the whole cycle, but it does put more pressure on your electrical panels. You’ll want to make sure your PID controllers are tuned to the exact weight and size of your pads. If they aren’t, you’ll overshoot the temp and be right back where you started.
The Trade-offs
Shortwave IR is fast. Really fast. But it’s also aggressive. If you put the lamps too close, you’ll scorch the top layer while the bottom stays raw. It’s a balancing act between where the lamps sit and how fast the belt is moving. If you try to push for too much throughput, you risk creating more porosity in the resin. The only real way to keep the pads strong is to get your zoning dialed in perfectly.