Acoustic warnings were essential for survival in the past and still play an important role in contemporary society. However, a human being’s hearing is always active, and increasing sound sources in daily life makes unwanted noise a serious problem.
Traffic and cars represent a major source of noise. Noise must be controlled inside vehicles to ensure driver and passenger comfort. However, vehicular noise can quickly become noise pollution for those living close to busy roads, potentially causing severe health problems.
Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a significant step towards widespread noise reduction as electric motors are much quieter than combustion engines. However, other noise sources exist with EVs, including screeching, squeaking, or brake rattling.
This article explores the advantages of using specialized tapes to reduce noise in brake systems. It examines their function, the development of innovative new technologies, and the benefits they offer compared to traditional shims.
How Specialized Tapes Work to Reduce Noise
The squeaking and screeching of brakes can be annoying for people in vehicles and those in the surrounding area. Special adhesive brake shim tapes are designed to control noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). They convert vibrational energy into heat by absorbing and dissipating vibration and sound waves.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives alongside strong backing materials designed to provide structural support and resistance improve the system’s overall performance and durability. This approach results in a more comfortable and quiet driving experience for vehicle occupants and people in the vehicle’s vicinity.
A primary challenge in minimizing brake squeaking is that some brake shim tapes perform well in low temperatures but less well with rising temperatures.
Image Credit: Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions
Some designs have the opposite problem. The challenge lies in covering all the brakes' temperatures to operate within as widely as possible.
Engineers at Saint-Gobain have developed an approach to designing brake shim tapes that leverage innovative adhesive technology to extend their workable temperature range to a maximum.
Specialized Tapes’ Advantages Versus Traditional Shims
Specialized tapes offer numerous advantages over traditional shims for brake noise reduction. These include:
Greater Noise Reduction
Their tailored design affords specialized tapes more effective noise reduction capabilities than traditional shims, particularly in high-performance or heavy-duty brake systems.
Increased Durability
Tailored material selection helps to maximize wear and tear resistance compared to traditional shims, leading to fewer maintenance requirements and a longer service life.
Improved Performance
Innovative brake shim tapes can also enhance the performance of the whole brake system by reducing vibration, increasing brake pad contact, and improving the overall feel of braking.
The main downside of these positive features is that they are only effective within limited temperatures.
High-Performance Tapes with Wide Temperature Ranges
Saint-Gobain has leveraged its unique UV curing technology and adhesive design to create an all-temperature damping adhesive tape that offers high-performance damping for low-, mid-, and high-temperature windows in one product.
Image Credit: Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions
Numerous tape variants have been developed for original equipment manufacturer applications, ensuring the best acrylate adhesive performance through Iap shear, peel adhesion, and T-pull. They offer optimal acrylate damping performance and a high loss factor over a wide temperature damping window.
Their liner selection also enables strong tear resistance, low release, and optimized processability.
Special set-ups provide excellent adhesive damping performance when used in aftermarket applications, alongside competitive pricing and good adhesion on rubber and painted surfaces.
Summary
Innovative brake shim tape design can achieve more than simply optimizing overall brake system performance. It can have an audible impact on reducing interior and exterior vehicle noise, helping to reduce or even prevent traffic noise pollution effectively.
Acknowledgments
Produced from materials originally authored by Alexander Dewald from Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.
This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.
For more information on this source, please visit Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions.