Novel C/C–SiC materials have been developed for their use as brake pads for high‐speed elevators. Under dynamic and stationary conditions, these materials exhibit high thermal shock resistance, high coefficients of friction, and extremely low wear rates. In addition, it has been found that the SiC content of the C/C–SiC materials on the friction surface heavily influences the frictional behavior. Low‐cost materials based on short fiber reinforcement and on drastically reduced process times showed their high potential for the manufacture of cost‐efficient brake pads.

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Current crash structures in cars are still using the buckling of metallic structures to absorb the kinetic energy in case of an impact. The disadvantage of this technology is that changes within the static structural behaviour, like e.g. the stiffness or eigenfrequencies, will cause changes in the crash behaviour, even if this is not desired. This correlation between static and dynamic behaviour causes many development loops to adjust the crash behaviour, e.g. through optimizing trigger geometries which lower the initial crash forces. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Institute of Vehicle Concepts has developed a novel method to offer an efficient way of absorbing energy by peeling the outer skin of load bearing structures, like the crash boxes and the longitudinal rails. This technology provides an adjustable force level without changing the static behaviour of the front structure itself. This property offers the opportunity to create adaptable crash behaviour with only smallest changes within the peeling depth. Furthermore, it is possible to generate close to ideal force-deflection curves, which offers the potential to achieve high specific energy absorption. The DLR will show results of static and dynamic testing of crash tubes and of a vehicle front structure equipped with this mechanism. In addition the implementation of the methodology into the dynamic simulation with LS-Dyna will be shown. Benefits and limitations of this novel energy absorption method will be discussed.

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