Brake Pads

TRW's brake pad range has always been a benchmark for the European Aftermarket. Constant range updates with an ever-increasing speed to market are vital factors to maintain our European market coverage of over 98%. 1293 brake pads constitute one of the most comprehensive ranges available today - also supporting the large increase in the number of Japanese and especially Korean vehicles registered in Europe. But TRW's excellence obviously does not stop at vehicle coverage - being the leading supplier of disc brake systems to European vehicle manufacturers, the aftermarket range benefits from TRW's own stringent OE specification.

Range Coverage

Manufacturing and testing

In the year 2000, TRW developed a new friction formulation well in advance of EU restrictions on the use of heavy metals thus resolving the conflict between environmental responsibilities and braking performance. TRW was the pioneer of a friction compound free of environmentally unfriendly material such as copper, brass, antimony, lead and molybdenum. Independent research has shown that antimony not only causes lung damage when inhaled, but can also be a cause of cancer.

Nevertheless, a brake pad would be nothing without braking performance. TRW dedicates extensive time and investment to constantly developing friction materials to TRW's own stringent original equipment specification. Complementing the widespread testing carried out by our state of the art in-house testing facilities, regular Alpine tests and high speed fade tests ensure the stability and anti-fade characteristics expected from an OE supplier.

To improve the "green behaviour", all TRW brake pads are scorched eliminating initial fading and reducing the bedding-in time. TRW has recently introduced advanced heat plate scorching where each pad is pressed to a heated plate. This process uses less energy than conventional flame scorching and is also today an original equipment standard.

The European regulation ECE R90 ensures the quality and performance of all brake pads sold in Europe. For TRW, this is a minimum requirement and the business carries out a wide range of additional tests to ensure the complete safety of its parts.

Noise reduction

With the increase in comfort of modern vehicles, noise-free braking components are a must. TRW brake pads are manufactured using deep moulding technology – a process undertaken by automatic moulding presses. This improves the consistency of the density and porosity of the raw material, resulting in a significant reduction of squealing and juddering, thus improving driver comfort.

TRW also fits all passenger car brake pads with shims - a vital feature for noise reduction. A further development is the ever increasing use of metallic shims on original equipment brake pads; this specification is mirrored in TRW’s aftermarket pad range.

Adding value with accessories

Complex fitting accessories are also becoming standard features to disc brake systems. TRW's proactive approach in supplying these components either with the brake pads or in our separate range of fitting kits, ensures full servicing down to the last detail. Together with multi-lingual fitting instructions this ensures correct maintenance and safety and of course avoids additional costs and saves time.