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Brake Noise, Vibration and Harshness:
Technology Driving Customer Satisfaction
As vehicles continue to move upscale in
amenities and pricing,motorists have become
increasingly more demanding in regard to
smooth, quiet braking performance over the
life of their vehicles.
The entire automotive industry can
attest to this, with brake noise, vibration
and harshness (NVH) repairs often domi-
nating OE warranty claims at dealerships
and aftermarket service center workloads.
More than $100 million is spent annually
on brake NVH warranty work in North
America alone.
To reduce such warranty and brake
repair costs, more attention is being
placed on optimizing NVH performance
A variety of factors contribute to brake NVH performance issues. The challenge to Akebono and other brake
suppliers is to successfully identify the root cause(s), which often vary from one model to the next.
AKEBONO BRAKING TECHNOLOGY
to eliminate brake squeals, groans and
other related issues at the OE level. This
is especially true considering new vehicle
quality perceptions are often driven in part
by brake performance and warranty repairs.
To reduce warranty and brake
repair costs, more attention is
being placed on optimizing NVH
performance to eliminate brake
squeals, groans and other related
issues at the OE level.
The aftermarket parts and service industry,
likewise, has placed greater focus on brake
NVH issues. Consumers are beginning to
expect OE level performance over the
life of their vehicles. Aftermarket friction
material suppliers have introduced a multi-
tude of friction products during the past
few years to restore OE brake NVH
performance with varying degrees of success.
Technology-based aftermarket suppliers
with comprehensive engineering capabilities
have done well. Others without access to
such resources have struggled to produce
viable friction products that live up to
their NVH performance claims.
Japanese Technology
Credited with Original
Brake NVH Breakthroughs
The focus on brake NVH performance is
a relatively recent trend. Up until the
1980s, most motorists accepted a certain
level of brake noise and roughness, even in
some luxury and near-luxury models
imported from Europe.
The first breakthroughs in brake NVH
technology coincided with the industry
push to develop non-asbestos organic
(NAO) brake pads. Much of this work was
led by Japanese brake suppliers Akebono
Corp., Nisshinbo (NBK) and Sumitomo.
Their efforts focused on low metallic
and other NAO friction formulations.
Akebono introduced the automobile
industry’s first NAO brake pads for mass
production featuring proprietary ceramic
formulations in the 1980s. They were
specifically engineered for the popular
Honda Accord and Toyota Camry models
sold in North America.
akebonobrakes.com
 These friction technology advances
forever helped to change consumer
expectations in North America and, not
surprisingly, sales of these Japanese vehicles
exploded. The Japanese OEMs set new
performance and quality benchmarks for
quiet, smooth braking that were admired
by the entire industry.
The first breakthroughs
in brake NVH technology
coincided with the industry push
to develop non-asbestos organic
(NAO) brake pads.
During this time, North American OEMs
were losing longtime customers to the
Japanese automakers and facing a rising
amount of costly brake noise warranty
work. In response, the domestic auto
Akebono measures brake system noise and vibration on complete vehicles in its Chassis Noise Dynamometer
room, found at the company’s North American R&D technical center in Farmington Hills, Mich.
AKEBONO BRAKING TECHNOLOGY
Akebono engineers have access to more than 20 brake
and chassis noise dynamometers at the company’s
North American technical center. The $2-million corner
noise dynamometer (above) measures corner suspen-
sion assembly for noise over a wide frequency spectrum.
industry began devoting increasingly more
resources toward benchmarking Japanese
vehicles to identify the attributes which
lead them to steady market gains in the
early 1990s.
Ford Motor Co. led the charge during
this time to make quiet, smooth braking
the OE standard in North America. The
best-selling Ford Taurus was one of the first
North American passenger cars to feature
ceramic brake pads. GM, concerned with
brake noise on its growing lineup of light-
duty trucks and SUVs, also began using
ceramic friction products during the 1990s.
DaimlerChysler began to focus more
resources on brake NVH performance and
advanced ceramic friction materials as well,
particularly in North America.
Akebono System Approach
to Solving Brake NVH
Issues Most Effective
Vehicle program launch delays are not
easily tolerated in today’s increasingly
competitive automotive marketplace. Un-
fortunately, brake NVH issues can stop a
vehicle launch in its tracks or cause
irreparable harm to consumer impressions
during this time. Consequently, automakers
try to pinpoint brake NVH issues as early
as possible in a vehicle’s development.
Brake NVH expertise is a key factor when
selecting suppliers for vehicle programs.
All brake technology suppliers are
concerned with eliminating noise and
vibration. Their levels of commitment to
optimizing brake NVH and approaches
taken vary, however. In its simplest terms,
brake NVH performance is determined by
akebonobrakes.com

Akebono carefully selects fine ceramic ingredients (20 microns or less) for its friction formulations to optimize brake
NVH performance and control rotor wear. The use of common ceramic particles may improve braking power, but
results in poorer NVH performance, greater rotor wear and increased brake dusting.
the interaction of friction material, caliper
and rotor. Since many brake systems are
multi-sourced, most suppliers still evaluate
NVH issues on a component level.
Akebono is one of the few suppliers
that uses a more comprehensive system
approach to evaluate and optimize brake
NVH performance.The goal is to find the
root cause of an NVH performance
issue, which is not always easy. In addition
to evaluating friction material, caliper and
Akebono has built one of the most advanced brake system testing labs in North America and uses a variety
of analysis tools to evaluate and optimize NVH performance.
AKEBONO BRAKING TECHNOLOGY
engineers also direct their efforts on
eliminating low frequency groans and
pulsations. In many cases, the brakes work
fine from a performance perspective
and these noises are simply annoying.
The essence of brake
NVH technology has evolved little
in recent years, with the focus
remaining on optimizing
component compatibility and
eliminating vibration.
But, the analytical and measure-
ment tools used today are
rotor on both an individual and three-set
much more advanced.
system level, other braking and suspension
components are examined closely to
Squealing, for example, is sometimes the
optimize their compatibility during the
result of an abrasive friction material on
design process.
a rotor surface. Nevertheless, current
When engineers first began concentrat-
consumer braking performance expectations
ing on NVH performance during the early
necessitate the development of solutions to
1990s, they focused much of their attention
eliminate these occurrences.
on eliminating high-frequency squeals and
In addition to evaluating the compatibility
brake judder (roughness), often the result
of pad, caliper and rotor, this system
of mechanical brake issues.Today, however,
approach to evaluating NVH performance
also involves making sure the brake system
itself is robust and durable enough for the
vehicle. This is a real challenge today as
automakers are looking to reduce the
weight of the vehicle and, in turn, component
weight. Less robust brake systems are much
more sensitive to excitations (friction
forces) that generate noise and vibration.
Modern Analysis Tools
Lead to New Brake NVH
Standards
The essence of brake NVH technology
has evolved little in recent years, with the
focus remaining on optimizing component
compatibility and eliminating vibration. But
the analytical and measurement tools used
today are much more advanced. The
resources needed to effectively evaluate
akebonobrakes.com
brake NVH performance simply did not
exist as recently as a decade ago, when the
automotive industry could measure brake
noise frequency, but not much else.
Contrast this to the modern NVH labs at
Akebono and other leading brake suppliers.
In addition to sophisticated structural and
thermal analysis tools, advanced dynamic
motion studies are regularly conducted in real
brake-stopping environments to see how
components interact. The movement that
causes vibration and noise is very subtle,
almost always invisible to the human eye.
Most people cannot appreciate the
tolerances involved in refining brake NVH
Most people cannot appreciate
the tolerances involved in
refining brake NVH performance.
Engineers today are
measuring distances on the
micron level – down to
one millionth of a meter.
performance. Engineers today are measuring
distances on the micron level – down to
one millionth of a meter. Proximity sensors
are used to measure how components
move relative to each other when brakes
are applied. In instances where it is not
possible to attach sensors, laser measuring
devices are employed.
Another major improvement in brake
NVH analysis is environmental control.
NVH events, especially those noise related,
are almost always linked to specific
temperature and humidity ranges.
Akebono’s engineering center in North
America is the only one in the world that
has full environmental controls on all of its
custom-built brake and chassis noise
dynamometers.
The world-class facility also features a
AKEBONO BRAKING TECHNOLOGY
CERAMICS vs. SEMI-METALLICS
Brake NVH Performance Comparison
Cold Friction
Friction Material
Akebono Ceramics
Semi-Metallics
Excellent Good
number of small-scale dynamometers with
complete environmental controls. In
addition to running performance and basic
wear tests, the Akebono small-scale
dynamometers were custom designed
to evaluate noise and feature all of the
necessary instrumentation.
Most OE brake suppliers typically have
such environmental capabilities on only 20
percent of their dynamometers, forcing
them to often use a hit-and-miss approach
to identifying NVH issues.Very few, if any,
brake suppliers in the aftermarket have
environmental capabilities whatsoever.
Such technology is cost prohibitive to
many companies, considering the typical
cost of a full-size component dynamometer
Advanced thermography analysis of rotor surfaces
helps Akebono identify causes of brake judder, often
the result of heat spots.
Wear Noise
Fade Low Temp
Friction Stability
Roughness
High Temp
Low Temp
Corrosion
Vibration
Squeal
Groan
Fair
with environmental controls is at least
$1 million. This point alone illustrates
Akebono’s commitment to optimizing
brake NVH performance.
Market Dynamics May Play
Biggest Role in Future of
Brake NVH Performance
As global automotive tastes continue to
merge, customer demand for quiet,
smooth braking is growing in North
America and other key markets world-
wide. To meet this requirement, Akebono
and other leading suppliers are spearhead-
ing a technological revolution in brake sys-
tem design and safety. The greatest chal-
lenge they face in this regard is finding a
balance between optimizing brake NVH
performance and minimizing engineering
and manufacturing costs to provide the
greatest value to motorists. Their expec-
tations must be met, however, or
automakers run the risk of turning them
into dissatisfied customers. The price to
win these customers back may be more
than dedicating the technological
resources and ongoing commitment need-
ed to ensure optimal NVH performance
and quiet, smooth braking.
akebonobrakes.com