Study on detection technique of Asbestos in Brake Pads

Asbestos is highly fire-resistant, and electrically and thermally insulating, and it is a type of important industrial material. At the same time, however, this type of substance is proven to be highly dangerously carcinogenic. Asbestos fiber is harmful to human health, and it is important to test the asbestos in products. There is no applicable specification available in our country for the method of determining the asbestos in Brake Pads. In this paper, one method of using a polarizing microscope with a X-ray diffraction is used to identify the asbestos. Firstly, the characteristic features of the specimen was obtained under a polarizing microscope, if any fibrous particle exists, further test will be made with the help of a X-ray diffraction. If the fiber under observation has asbestos diffraction peak, it will be initially determined that the fiber under observation is the asbestos fiber. Otherwise, it will be determined that the fiber under observation is not asbestos fiber particles, and no asbestos has been found in the specimens. The other method of using a scanning electron microscope with a X-ray diffractometer is used to identify the asbestos in automotive brake pads, and this method is simple, fast, reliable and suitable to be widely applied. And the result shows that this method of testing for asbestos in brake pads through polarizing microscope and X-ray diffraction or a scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffractometer are simple, reliable and suitable to be widely applied.