Pasia Basalt Fiber Chopped Strands Applied in Another Customer's Automotive Brake Friction Pads

(October 8, 2026) After three years testing and trial, Pasia 13 micron, 6mm multi-purpose resin compatible sizing system basalt fiber chopped strands have been successfully bulky used by a industrial reputated friction material manufacturer who are one of the major suppliers to Volkswagen, Benz, BMW etc.  As the automotive industry continues to raise the bar for braking system performance and environmental compliance, technological innovation in friction materials has drawn increasing attention. Recently, our company's core product — basalt fiber chopped strands — has achieved positive progress in automotive brake friction pad applications. With its outstanding physical and chemical properties, this material is gradually becoming a key reinforcing component in high-end asbestos-free friction pads, offering a new material solution for improving vehicle braking safety, comfort, and durability.

Application: The "Reinforcing Skeleton" in Friction Pads

In automotive braking systems, friction pads (brake pads) play a critical role in decelerating and stopping vehicles through friction. Friction materials typically consist of three major components: binders, reinforcing fibers, and friction performance modifiers. Among these, reinforcing fibers are the core element determining the mechanical strength, thermal stability, and friction and wear performance of brake pads.

Our company's basalt fiber chopped strands are applied as this key reinforcing component in customers' automotive friction pad formulations. Produced by chopping continuous basalt fiber filaments through a specialized process, they serve as the "steel rebar skeleton" in friction materials. During braking, the chopped strands are uniformly dispersed within the resin matrix, effectively bearing the shear and compressive stresses generated at the friction interface and inhibiting deformation and cracking of the material under high temperature and pressure.

Currently, this product is mainly used in the production of customers' asbestos-free disc brake pads and drum brake linings, suitable for braking conditions of passenger vehicles and medium-to-heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

Advantages: A Dual Breakthrough in Performance and Environmental Sustainability

Compared with traditional asbestos fibers and certain synthetic fibers, basalt fiber chopped strands demonstrate several significant advantages in friction pad applications:

1. Exceptional Thermal Stability and Fade Resistance. During braking, the friction interface temperature can exceed 300°C, at which the resin matrix is prone to thermal degradation, causing a sharp drop in friction coefficient (known as "thermal fade"). Studies have shown that basalt fibers can significantly improve the thermal fade resistance of friction materials. Samples with added basalt fibers achieved a friction coefficient of 0.421–0.443 after thermal fade, representing a 19–25% improvement over the original state, with fade rates reduced by 7.9–9.87%. This characteristic is crucial for ensuring braking safety under extreme conditions such as long downhill descents and emergency braking.

2. Stable Friction Coefficient and Improved Braking Comfort. Recent experimental studies confirm that a synergistic reinforcement system of basalt fibers and platelet potassium magnesium titanate can effectively enhance friction stability, wear resistance, and fade resistance. Finite element simulations further reveal that this composite material exhibits excellent heat dissipation capacity and uniform contact stress distribution under extreme braking conditions. This means vehicles equipped with basalt fiber friction pads can maintain a more linear braking feel across various operating conditions, reducing brake noise and vibration.

3. Mechanical Reinforcement and Toughening Effects. Basalt fibers inherently feature high strength and high modulus, with tensile strength exceeding 2000 MPa and elastic modulus greater than 85 GPa. The chopped strands form a three-dimensional randomly distributed network structure within the friction material, acting as "reinforcement" and "bridging" to effectively improve the flexural strength, tensile strength, and impact toughness of brake pads.

4. Purely Natural and Environmentally Friendly. Basalt fiber is made from natural basalt ore as its sole raw material, produced through high-temperature melting and drawing, and contains no asbestos, copper, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury, or other harmful substances. Under increasingly stringent environmental regulations and health and safety standards, this characteristic makes basalt fiber an ideal green material to replace asbestos and certain synthetic fibers.

5. Favorable Cost-Performance Ratio. Compared with high-performance fibers such as carbon fiber, basalt fiber offers significant cost advantages while maintaining excellent heat resistance and mechanical properties, providing friction material manufacturers with a balanced choice that addresses both performance and cost.

Conclusion

The successful application of basalt fiber chopped strands in automotive brake friction pads represents an important achievement of our company in new material research, development, and industrialization. Going forward, the company will continue to deepen collaboration with friction material customers, conducting joint technical research on fiber surface modification and formulation optimization, further exploring the application potential of basalt fiber in high-end braking materials, and contributing to the safe, environmentally friendly, and high-quality development of the automotive industry.