Development of industrial friction material in porous carbon material made from rice bran

Abstract

Rice Bran is a residual product of rice and the amount of it is about 0.9 million tons per year in Japan. The rice bran carbon (RBC) is manufactured by impregnating a phenol resin with the rice bran, and carbonizing in 900 °C nitrogen gas atmosphere. The RBC is expected as an industrial material with a low environmental impact from a viewpoint of recycling. Moreover, since the RBC has a natural porous structure, it has excellent frictional properties and to be a friction element such as brake and clutch. In this study, the authors prepared some friction materials with the RBC particle to discuss the possibility of the RBC as alternative material of graphite. Especially, the frictional properties and the mechanical strength were measured to evaluate the possibility of the RBC. The friction coefficient was almost the same for the samples which was mixed with graphite and RBC. On the other hand, the specific wear rate in the sample with RBC was decreased to the one half of that in sample with graphite. The mechanical strength was almost the same in samples with RBC and graphite. Therefore, the RBC was expected to be a high performance frictional material to reduce the specific wear rate.