TMD Friction has developed a more environmentally friendly packaging for its Textar passenger car brake discs, which will reportedly save 40 tonnes of plastic each year.
A corrugated cardboard will replace the plastic film to effectively separate the Textar passenger car discs so it will not stick to the brake disc coating.
In the aftermarket, brake discs are offered as axle sets with workshops receiving brake discs packed in flat boxes. If there are two discs in one package, the surface of the disc coating can be damaged very quickly during transport. This is due to the heavy brake discs causing the grinding dust and anti-corrosion coating to rub off. For this reason, the individual discs were previously packed in plastic film straight after production. This not only offered good protection against abrasion, but also prevented the fresh coating from sticking.
For TMD Friction, a product is not just defined by its technical performance, it’s also defined by the ecological footprint it leaves behind in production and use. Water-based coatings for discs, copper-free friction materials and avoiding harmful antimony are the environmentally friendly solutions taken into consideration at TMD Friction when products are developed and launched.
Dalibor Stojnic, Category Manager at TMD Friction, explained: “More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide every year, with more than a third of this being used for packaging. By switching to cardboard, we will save almost 40 tonnes of plastic a year in the future, therefore making an important contribution to our environment. The workshop also doesn’t have to separate waste, as they can now dispose of all of the empty packaging and send it to be recycled.”
The packaging will transition step-by-step from July, meaning plastic-free TMD Friction passenger car brake disc packaging will come onto the market once the existing inventory has been sold.
