Tribological behavior of Clutch Plate Material in Laboratory Simulated Conditions

Abstract

A Clutch is a machine member used to connect the driving shaft to a driven shaft, so that the driven shaft may be started or stopped at will, without stopping the driving shaft. While riding the clutch, it simply means keeping the clutch pedal, fully, or partially pressed down. Hence, the pressure on the pad is creating a huge amount of friction which will very quickly produces the wearing in Clutch plate material. The concept is to understand material behavior and wear and friction criteria. The clutch plate is made of material usually of Grey Cast Iron with Asbestos used as Friction Lining Material. In this research, an attempt is made to try out Composite material clutch plate. Composite are of polymer, ceramic and metal matrix type. The use of composites is motivated because of good friction coefficient and wear resistant properties. The aim of this present work is to identify a heat resistant clutch material for optimum friction coefficient (µ) and to decide a perfect composite material which has low wear rate at different temperature, load and velocity conditions. The Clutch Plate is modelled and analyzed using Creo and FEA software. The Experimental investigation of plate is done by Pin on Disc Apparatus for validation of wear rate and Friction Coefficient .