Delphi Technologies’ Northern Europe Marketing Manager Julian Goulding discusses the processes undertaken to ensure the company’s brake pads and discs are roadworthy.
The routine replacement of service items such as pads and discs is often an independent workshop’s first point of contact with a new customer. Provided the replacements perform as expected, trust can be built up, leading to wider long term business opportunities. The challenge is to supply good value components that can be relied on to meet the customer’s expectations for wet and dry stopping distance, noise, life and pedal feel.
Having long established OE supply relationships is a massive advantage for motor factors. Because we supply the OE parts for many vehicles, we work with the automakers, often for years before launch.
These OE relationships don’t just speed up aftermarket part introduction, they also help Delphi Technologies to match or improve product performance. For example, we undertook an exhaustive series of tests in which our replacement pads were compared against the OE items and six other aftermarket products. In the ECE Regulation 90 test from 100 mph, the Delphi Technologies pads stopped quickest, four metres ahead of the next placed brand and over 17 metres ahead of the worst. On top of this, the Delphi pads were also the quietest on the test and lasted the longest, too.
Lots to consider
When creating a new pad, we consider the vehicle type, top speed, balance, weight, disc type, and axle, using over 130 different friction ingredients to create more than 20 unique friction formulations for an optimum match of pad to vehicle. Unlike many aftermarket pads, we use a special underlayer technology that reduces noise, lowers heat transfer and increases the pad’s shear strength.
Obviously, the pad performance is closely related to that of the disc. Brake discs can be broadly categorised as plain cast iron, painted, partially coated and fully coated – based on the material used and how and where it is applied. Plain offers no corrosion protection and is vulnerable to anything the road or the weather throws at it. Paint is a purely cosmetic finish which may look great initially, but rapidly deteriorates in service. Partially coated discs offer some protection, however contaminants, especially salt spray during winter months, can quickly penetrate the unprotected surfaces and eat away at the disc. The highest level of protection comes with a fully coated disc, which is the approach taken at Delphi Technologies.
We apply a thin layer of a high performance, water and zinc flake-based Geomet coating to our discs. We also coat them over the entire surface to provide longer lasting corrosion protection than painted or partially coated equivalents. What’s more, because they have no oil to clean off, they’re easier to both dismount and install, saving valuable labour and service time.
Independent salt spray corrosion resistance tests were performed on the Delphi Technologies disc, the OE equivalent, and five premium aftermarket brands – all fitted to a popular PSA application. By the end of the test, at 720 hours, the Delphi disc was still less corroded than both the OE and the black painted equivalent had been at just 24 hours.
Being able to quickly transfer our OE experience to the aftermarket, including our extensive R&D experience that enables us to reverse engineer OE parts to create an alternative part of equal performance, has great benefits for motor factors and their customers. Not only does this ensure that factors are stocked with relevant parts for even the newest of vehicles, but also that every component is high quality, which works to keep garages and technicians happy, minimises the chance of returns and helps build long term business relationships.
