CL RC8 Brake Pads

While most pads are formed from fibers and organic materials bonded together by resins, CL Brakes Sintered Pads begin as powdered metals such as iron, bronze, and copper, mixed with roughly ten other constituent materials including graphite and carbon.  The mix is compressed in a tool under extreme pressure to give it shape, and then brazed onto a backing plate in an oven at 1800F.  The resulting material is characterized by a consistently high coefficient of friction, stability at high temperatures, and an extremely low wear rates.

CL Brakes originally created sintered brake materials for military applications such as tanks, helicopters, and airplanes, as well as high speed freight and passenger trains like France’s TGV. After extensive development, the technology was successfully introduced in motorcycle applications. The most recent development has focused on aligning the sintered technology with racecars. CL Brakes have now been used successfully at the highest levels of motorsport, including World Rally Championship (WRC) and NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Because of their higher metal content, CL Sintered Pads don’t rely on a pad transfer layer to generate high levels of friction. The only recommended bed-in after install is to do a few moderately hard stops to seat the pads flush with the rotor face. That’s it. When the pads heat to a certain point, they will deposit a layer material on the face of the rotors, just like other pad types. That pad transfer layer is extremely thin however, and contains graphite (a lubricant), which protects the rotors from wear. Because of the abrasive nature of the sintered material when cold, that thin transfer layer will quickly be removed from the rotors during any cold brake applications. The transfer layer of CL pads is essentially self-curing, and only develops when required to protect the rotors.