Brake pads are one of the most important parts in the braking system used in cars. Stopping a car that’s speeding at say a hundred miles per hour within a few seconds is no mean task, and these pads take the major brunt of the pressure that is generated in the effort in working against the great momentum. Cars typically have brake rotors and brake pads that are pressed against each other to create a frictional force that quickly convert the kinetic energy into heat energy taking the steam away from the car’s momentum at every turn of the wheel. There are two types of braking systems, the drum braking system and the disc braking system. The brake discs, which are the more effective and more popular of the two systems uses a hydraulic line controlled by the brake pedal to squeeze a set of brake calipers against the brake rotors to bring it into contact with the brake pads that are attached to the brake calipers.

Disc brakes are similar to the system of the brakes used in bicycles. The rubber shoes that contact the rim of the tire in traditional bicycles are much like the brake shoes used in cars. Understandably, the amount of grip needed to stop a car is much higher than that of a bicycle and this leads to a lot of wear and tear of the brake shoes. These brake shoes have to be checked regularly for their condition, because a worn out shoe could be a major safety concern. Previously, these brake shoes were made from organic materials; for instance, one common form of brake shoes used asbestos glued to carbon with a resin-based compound. Later, however, the U.S. government banned the use of asbestos and have now been replaced by a material called Kevlar® for the production of non-metallic brake pads. This material is also widely used to make bulletproof vests and is extremely resilient.

Major portions of the brake shoes that are manufactured today, however, are partly metallic, because they offer more durability. These brake shoes use a combination of copper, brass, and steel wool shavings held together with a resin. The good thing about these brake pads is that they can be changed at longer intervals and often last for thousands of miles, before you need to change them. However, on the loop side these semi-metallic brake shoes make a kind of grinding noise when brought in contact with the rotors. This cannot be avoided, but there are other types of after-market brake shoes that make less noise than these. These days there are available brake shoes that use shims under their surface, designed in that way so that they create the grinding noise after they are worn out to a certain point. This sound is a signal for the driver to check his brake shoes immediately and get them changed as soon as possible. If not changed quickly they can often cause damage to the rotor. Companies like Hawk, EBC, Posi-Quiet, and Axxis are the major manufacturers of quality brake shoes in the market.