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Brake-Pedal Feel Key Contributor to Customer Satisfaction Ferodo® Compares Pad Performance Across Multiple Suppliers
“Pedal feel” is a term used hundreds of times each day in automotive workshops around the world. But what does it really mean, and why is this brake performance characteristic such an important consideration for consumers?
To shed light on the importance of pedal feel,
Federal-Mogul’s Ferodo® Brakes team conducted a study of this characteristic across many of the leading brake pad ranges available throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And the results showed a drastic variance in the two primary contributors to overall pedal feel – pedal effort
and travel.
“Consistent, precise pedal feel leads to increased driver confidence and control,” explained Silvano Veglia,
Federal-Mogul product marketing director, braking products, Europe, Middle East and Africa. “But if the driver needs to apply different force to the pedal each time to achieve the desired braking action, he or she won’t know what to expect from one situation to the next. That’s certainly not the way to build customer loyalty.”
The competitive study compared pedal effort and travel across six brands of brake pads. The pedal effort test measured the variance between minimum to maximum pedal effort using three brake applications at each of four speeds – 40, 80, 120 and 160 km/hour. Ferodo brake pads exhibited a maximum force variance of just 7 Newtons across all brake applications and operating speeds. The next most-consistent brand exhibited an 11-Newton variance, while the remaining four brands delivered variances of 17, 18, 22 and 28 Newtons, respectively.
As with the pedal effort test, Ferodo pads exhibited by far the most consistent pedal travel across the test parameters. The maximum variance of Ferodo pads was approximately 2 mm, compared to 4,5 mm for the next best-performing brand. The least consistent brand exhibited more than 9,0 mm of variance across all brake applications.
“Put yourself into the customer’s shoes,” Veglia said. “You’re traveling at a high rate of speed and need to brake very quickly to avoid an accident. If your brake pads present you with a variance of 28 Newtons and 9 millimeters in pedal action, would you feel confident and in control? I think we can all agree that the driver won’t be happy with the quality of his or her recent brake service.”
Contact your Ferodo representative for more information on the performance characteristics
of Ferodo brake pads and those of other leading competitors.
Then ask yourself, if your brake range isn’t delivering the consistent performance your
customers expect, are you truly “in control” of every brake repair?
