Organic Brake Pads
Organic brake pads were first recognized in the seventies where they had a short stint of popularity. It was not long until they were filtered out as they were low quality, performed poorly, and had numerous health risks associated with the material used for the brake pads. While brake pads are necessary, organic brake pads are far from a good choice as there are many better brake pads to choose from in today's world.
Why Organic Brake Pads Are Essentially Discontinued
Organic brake pads were designed to stay within a small temperature range. Cooling the brakes was a very important factor in how safely the brake pads were operating. For the appropriate cooling for these brake pads it would be necessary that the brake system was large enough to take in and let out any heat that resulted from friction of the brakes.
Organic brake pads were quickly filtered out as large brake systems were pulled from the design to help decrease the overall weight of most vehicles. There was a higher demand for brake pads that were able to work properly across a large temperature range. This is what lead to the use of ceramic brake pads in vehicles as they offered everything that was not offered with organic brake pads.
Problems with Organic Brake Pads
Besides the small temperature range and heavy weight braking system there were still other downfalls with the design of these brake pads as well. One issue with the organic brake pads was the noise produced from them. They were a little too loud but it was considered bearable. A later design featured metallic brake pads but these were even louder. Once the ceramic brake pads were invented there were no noise problems at all with the brake pads.
Organic brake pads were also designed to have a relatively short life expectancy. There was also a bigger risk of damage to the rotors and drums of the braking system. Once again, ceramic brake pads were a solution for this problem as they offered everything that was not offered by the organic brake pads.
Health Concern with the Organic Brake Pads
There was one health risk associated with the organic brake pads. It has to do with the carbon and graphite which was found in the organic brake pads. These two contents resulted in large amounts of black dust being produced from using the organic brake pads. Ceramic brake pads fixed this issue for the most part but there is minor dust production. Not to worry, dust from ceramic brake pads is light in color and is very unlikely to get stuck to your wheels.
Organic pads were originally created with asbestos. After a while the health concerns of asbestos surfaced and brake pad manufacturer's eliminated asbestos from their product. The new product was the non-asbestos organic brake pads which were designed to be healthier for the environment. The brake pads containing asbestos were discontinued but you can still find the non-asbestos organic brake pads in some stores.
If you are ever looking to purchase brake pads then you will want to stay clear from organic brake pads completely. Ceramic brake pads are a much more reliable and convenient investment. There are many problems with the organic brake pads so there is no sense even bothering with them. They are rarely found in stores today but some manufacturer's still make them. Your best option would be to just stick with ceramic brake pads as they are guaranteed to perform well.
Ultimately, with the history and facts of organic brake pads there is no reason to want to use them in today's world as you have a few great alternatives that will perform to exceed your expectations.