Brembo's New Brakes Cut Particulate Emissions By 90 Percent (arstechnica.com) 43
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As electric vehicles reduce car exhaust as a source of particulate emissions, people are increasingly focusing on other vehicular sources of pollution that won't go away with electrification. Tires are one of them, particularly as we grapple with overweight EVs with tire-shredding torque. And brakes are another -- even an EV with regenerative braking will occasionally need to use its friction brakes, after all. Over in Europe, the people responsible for writing regulations have taken this into consideration with the upcoming Euro 7 standard, which sets new limits on 10- and 2.5-micron particulate emissions on all new vehicles -- including EVs -- starting next year. And to help OEMs achieve that target, Brembo has developed a new brake and pad set called Greentell that it says cuts brake dust emissions by 90 percent, improving durability in the process.
[...] Brembo investigated a range of solutions before settling on using laser metal deposition. Physical vapor deposition, as used as a durability coating for wristwatches and firearms, was ruled out due to cost. "So it can be used for some special application or some small pieces, but when you are speaking about 20 kilos of cast iron, PVD is not the right solution. LMD is a technology that [has been] available... [for] years, but [it hasn't yet been] applicable in a high volume application. So the goal is to find the best compromise between performance and process," [Fabiano Carminati, VP of disc technical development at Brembo] told me. Together with the reduction in brake dust, there's an 80 percent reduction in surface corrosion compared to conventional brakes, but they won't last forever. "The thickness of the layer that we apply is not so high -- we apply just 100-120 microns. That means that the disk is not a lifetime disk," he said. That said, Greentell brakes should need replacing less often, and while that's not entirely in Brembo's best financial interests, neither is not being able to offer its customers a Euro 7-compliant product.
[...] Brembo investigated a range of solutions before settling on using laser metal deposition. Physical vapor deposition, as used as a durability coating for wristwatches and firearms, was ruled out due to cost. "So it can be used for some special application or some small pieces, but when you are speaking about 20 kilos of cast iron, PVD is not the right solution. LMD is a technology that [has been] available... [for] years, but [it hasn't yet been] applicable in a high volume application. So the goal is to find the best compromise between performance and process," [Fabiano Carminati, VP of disc technical development at Brembo] told me. Together with the reduction in brake dust, there's an 80 percent reduction in surface corrosion compared to conventional brakes, but they won't last forever. "The thickness of the layer that we apply is not so high -- we apply just 100-120 microns. That means that the disk is not a lifetime disk," he said. That said, Greentell brakes should need replacing less often, and while that's not entirely in Brembo's best financial interests, neither is not being able to offer its customers a Euro 7-compliant product.
If they cost 1/10 of a cent more (Score:2)
And we are all walking around with a plastic spoon's worth of plastic in our brains because it's cheap and easy and profitable.
We can debate why we can't have nice things but the fact of the matter is we can't have nice things.
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Why not admit that current prices are psychological noise, not dictated mechanically by some ivory-tower supply-and-demand efficiency model, and print money faster than prices rise to pay for less harmful tech?
Re: If they cost 1/10 of a cent more (Score:1)
Maybe but maybe not. (Score:4, Informative)
I think you missed this part from the summary:
Over in Europe, the people responsible for writing regulations have taken this into consideration with the upcoming Euro 7 standard, which sets new limits on 10- and 2.5-micron particulate emissions on all new vehicles -- including EVs -- starting next year.
The implication seems to be that regulation is driving this particular advancement. With such a vast improvement, regulators may tighten the restrictions as it's been proven possible.
I'm 100% on board with the concept of least-cost dominating but my plastic spoon filled brain seems to think that regulation could make this a reality... for at least some of the world.
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EVs produce a lot less brake dust anyway, since most of the braking is regen rather than friction. Hopefully these new ones last as well as the older designs, where people would regularly get to 100k miles on their original brake pads. In fact often the main reason for replacing them was deterioration due to age, rather than them wearing down, so making them more resistant to corrosion would be good.
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Re:If they cost 1/10 of a cent more (Score:4, Informative)
Once again, your hilarious US-centric worldview is hilarious. This is a brake set developed by an Italian manufacturer, presented at the Shanghai auto show, in response to new EU regulations that make these particular nice things (or an equivalent) a frigging *obligation*, not something "we can't have". Maybe they won't come to the US, but they absolutely will come to the EU, because every European new car is going to need to meet Euro 7 particulate emission standards.
You've been whining for months now that no-one cares about your blessed tire and brake particulate emissions. The EU cares so much it's written laws to reduce the problem, and manufacturers are responding by bringing new products to market, and your last resort is to say that this thing that's happening, isn't happening. You silly billy
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You've been whining for months now that no-one cares about your blessed tire and brake particulate emissions.
His goal is to get rid of cars altogether, so we can have mass transit.
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They will sell in Europe, because there is an incentive to be Euro 7 emissions compliant.
USA still no plans to ban leaded avgas until 2031, and even then it's only California.
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It pains me that this gets modded insightful :D.
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The only thing that stopped that was newer tech that was cheaper and more performant.
False. TEL remains to this day the cheapest way to increase fuel octane. It's far cheaper to add TEL to the fuel mix than it is to run a reforming process at a refinery. What caused TEL to be abandoned is that it was poisonous to catalytic converters which were mandated long ago in the USA. For most of the 70s, 80s, and parts of the 90s, leaded fuel was cheaper to produce and cheaper at the pump. It was only in the 90s that leaded fuel started getting more expensive at the pump (due to economy logistics of
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You did not get that right, try again.
Ars to here (Score:2)
Does it seem like a significant number of Ars articles are just gratuitously pasted in here? And then slashdot harvests views of people commenting about a website that really does reporting.
Elephant in the room (Score:2)
TFS discusses all of those complex engineering tradeoffs, but forgets to mention Brembo's most important priority: Can these brakes still be painted a bright neon color that screams out through the wheel spokes and clashes with the car's body paint?
If not, this new development is a non-starter.
They'll be neon green (Score:2)
to indicate that you are a person who cares a lot about the environment.
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I'm perfectly aware of the difference.
And as I pointed out: The calipers are of primary importance. If these pads somehow interfere with that, then they're toast.
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Can these brakes still be painted a bright neon color that screams out through the wheel spokes and clashes with the car's body paint?
Hey man, it's greenTELL, not greenhide. Hells yes it will be visible from the moon.
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So, we got a big success! Hooray! Nope. This happens every single time.
Erm, yes. This process is called "improving". It's something both developed and developing societies drive to do continuously.
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This process is called "improving". It's something both developed and developing societies drive to do continuously.
It can only be called "improving" if the end result is better across all categories. What you have here is at best could be called "optimization without considering tradoffs". However, I see it as agenda driven over-regulation. That is, realizing they can't outright ban personal ownership of cars, this is a step in making car ownership unobtainable for the average person by increasing costs of ownership.
Already obsolete (Score:2)
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It is nice for emergency stops though.
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No it isn't. Dynamic brakes aren't used as emergency brakes in trains. For one thing, they only apply to driven wheels, and hence only work with the adhesive weight and traction of the loco itself, and not the whole train. They also lose effectiveness at low speeds (they're only good down to about 5 km/h) and won't actually bring the train to a standstill. On top of that, they depend on
Practical aspect to this (Score:1)
Beyond the brakes lasting longer, there is a very practical aspect to far less brake dust that is really nice - if you ever clean your wheels these would result in a LOT less work. I used to have a car with white wheels and even just minimal driving would get them pretty dirty.
Great for certification tests (Score:2)
The surface coating will decrease emissions during the certification tests. But in normal usage, it will wear off and the brakes will emit as much particulate matter as normal brakes.
This is basically PSCB, which "last thirty percent longer than uncoated iron rotors". https://www.porschestevenscree... [porschestevenscreek.com]
Reminds me of Nikasil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
laser metal deposition? 20 kilo? disks? (Score:2)
Did someone smoke too much? Brake disks arent shedding particulates, its the _pads_!
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Though with this change. Will they still make enough friction to clean the disks from rust?
Rust on the disks is a real problem on EV's because they use the physical disks so little.
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Brakes are not an issue for EVs (Score:2)
I used my brakes once yesterday (when someone cut me off which triggered the assisted breaking function). I can see on my dash when the brake calipers engage, the UI bar showing how much energy is going into battery through regen braking switches to orange to indicate it's maxed out and the calipers assist.
That said if you drive like an idiot maybe you need this on an EV.
It's still a good thing to have for other cars though, diesel and gasoline are here for any foreseeable future, so bonus points that they
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1) To break the car below 10~15KM/hour (for Americans: 5KM/hour is normal walking speed)
2) For emergency stops.
Generally the physical brakes are used so little that the disks rust -_-'
EVs wear brake pads differently from ICEs (Score:2)
I have been an EV driver for about 10 years (Nissan Leaf and Tesla M3). What Brembo is not commenting on is how the usage pattern of brake discs of EVs (including hybrids with enough battery) is radically different from ICE vehicles.
ICE vehicles use their brakes continually, every time they slow down. EVs regenerate the energy instead to refill the battery, that's why several models can be driven with a single pedal (raising the foot will slow down the car). Brakes in EVs tend to be used mostly for stationi
Sounds a bit like chrome plating (Score:2)
but with lasers instead of cyanide.
Interestingly, both favoured by Bond villains.