Friction pairing for parking brakes in motor vehicles

1. A method of holding a parked motor vehicle at an inclination of 45° or more by

providing a parking brake which comprises a frictional pairing, comprising a carbon ceramic brake disk and a brake caliper, including a brake pad for the brake caliper, and

bringing the brake disk and the brake pad into close contact by exerting pressure on the brake pad,

wherein the brake pad consists of a fiber-reinforced ceramic composite material, which has a matrix with consisting of phases of silicon carbide, silicon and carbon, and short reinforcement fibers of carbon, graphite, silicon carbide, and wherein this frictional pairing has a static friction coefficient of at least 0.65, and wherein the fibers are oriented in a way that at least 70% of the fibres include an angle of at most 30° with the normal of the plane of the friction surface of the brake pad, and wherein said brake pad is not damaged by high temperatures in contact with the carbon ceramic brake disk of up to 1000° C., and wherein said brake pad is made by mixing short fibers or bundles of short fibers with a carbonisable material to prepare a mixture, extruding this mixture to form an extrudate, cutting the extrudate to form bodies, carbonising said bodies and subjecting the carbonised bodies to infiltration with liquid silicon whereby silicon reacts with the carbon of said bodies under formation of silicon carbide to yield said brake pad, wherein said bodies are cut in a way that the extrusion direction is parallel to the direction of the normal of the friction surface of said brake pad.

2. The method of claim 1 , characterised in that the mass fraction of the reinforcement fibers in the composite material which makes up the brake pad is from 20% to 60%.

3. The method of claim 1 , characterised in that the mass fraction of silicon carbide in the composite material which makes up the brake pad amounts to from 30% to 70%.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the reinforcement fibers are carbon fibers having an average length of from 10 μm to 30 mm.

5. A method of holding a parked motor vehicle at an inclination of 45° or more by

providing a parking brake which comprises a frictional pairing comprising a brake disk made of grey cast iron, and a brake caliper, including a brake pad for the brake caliper, and

bringing the brake disk and the brake pad into close contact by exerting pressure on the brake pads,

wherein the brake pad consists of a fiber-reinforced ceramic composite material, which has a matrix with consisting of phases of silicon carbide, silicon and carbon, and short reinforcement fibers of carbon, graphite, silicon carbide, and wherein this frictional pairing has a static friction coefficient of at least 0.60, and wherein the fibers are oriented in a way that at least 70% of the fibres include an angle of at most 30° with the normal of the plane of the friction surface of the brake pad, and wherein said brake pad is made by mixing shod fibers or bundles of shod fibers with a carbonisable material to prepare a mixture, extruding this mixture to form an extrudate, cutting the extrudate to form bodies. carbonising said bodies and subjecting the carbonised bodies to infiltration with liguid silicon whereby silicon reacts with the carbon of said bodies under formation of silicon carbide to yield said brake pad, wherein said bodies are cut in a way that the extrusion direction is parallel to the direction of the normal of the friction surface of said brake pad.

6. The method of claim 5 , characterised in that the mass fraction of the reinforcement fibers in the composite material which makes up the brake pad is from 20% to 60%.

7. The method of claim 5 , characterised in that the mass fraction of the silicon carbide in the composite material which makes up the brake pad is from 30% to 70%.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the reinforcement fibers are carbon fibers having an average length of from 10 μm to 30 mm.