Project _Landslide_ will pursue a world-leading innovation for global drilling operations as employed in oil, gas, and geothermal. Such operations involve the drilling well bore holes, the hole is then lined with a tubular steel casing. The casing needs to be centralised within the bore and fixed in position by pumping cement into the void between the casing and the hole walls. An essential requirement is to assure the casing is kept central to the bore hole during this operation, and this job is done by "casing centralizers"- a cage-like steel apparatus that keeps the casing from touching the sides of the bore-hole. This gives the drilling team a complete 360-degree space around the casing for applying cement. The drilling industry uses two kinds of centralizers:
**The bow-spring centralizer** **.** Slightly larger than the borehole, the spring mechanism holds the casing in place by applying pressure against the sides of the wellbore. They are often used in vertical wells as less deviance in annular space about the drill.
**The rigid blade Centalizers**. These have no give and are more commonly used in deviated or horizontal well bores where weight of the casing would cause a bow spring centralizer to crush. Casing centralization ensures complete cement flow around the casing. Without this, gas/fluid migration can severely compromise well integrity leading to costly downtime due to necessary rework or worse, be life threatening & impart severe long lasting environmental damage as observed in Gulf of Mexico Deep Water Horizon disaster. Additionally to keeping casings away from the bore-hole in the high-pressure environment, centralizers are expected to assist in quicker run-in hole of casing. However, centralizers typically made from steel offer significant frictional resistance against the casing run-in hole. Various paint--on low-friction coatings and other engineering solutions have been tried, but wear off almost immediately or provide no advantage. Project _Landslide_ will explore an entirely new and untried concept of utilising solid low-friction linings ( similar to the technology used in car braking pads) to provide a controlled friction surface that is tough, with excellent compressive strength but also able to cope with the high temperatures and immense shear forces. _Landslide_ will unite a world-leading maker of centralizers, with leading experts from the brake and friction industry to transfer technology to create a new set of low-friction products offering clear cost, performance, safety, and environmental advantages in a highly competitive £500M global market
The rise of the global electric vehicle (EV) market has led to a major upheaval in the braking sector due to the use of regenerative braking systems, which reduce the use of conventional brakes by 95%. This was expected to end the routine replacement of brake pads, however, experience on vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, Kia Soul and Toyota Prius has shown that, while the friction material can last up to 100k miles, brake pads must be replaced in as little 7.5k miles due to corrosion of the steel backing plate debonding the friction material. This is because brakes are no longer used often enough to prevent excessive moisture build up. In addition, the corrosion itself is a key component of non-exhaust emissions, an area soon to be heavily legislated against in the upcoming Euro 7 standards. Furthermore, modern EVs still require conventional brakes for scenarios where more than 0.4g of deceleration is required and emergency stopping scenarios and must be designed to work in the advent of failure of the regenerative system. Given that EVs weigh on average 25% more than their combustion engine counterparts, this requires reciprocally bigger and heavier conventional braking systems, impacting range and emissions whilst being effectively redundant for the vast majority of braking scenarios.
Tribol Braking Ltd. has found a highly effective solution to this problem in the form of carbon fibre composite backing plates (CBPs) that match the performance of steel plates, are 70% lighter, are immune to corrosion issues and will therefore perform as a lifetime item. This saves resources, cuts waste and emissions, and improves vehicle range. In addition, the composite used possesses extremely low thermal conductivity compared to metals. This makes the CBP extremely attractive to the race sector, where the lightweighting coupled with the significantly reduced risk of brake fluid boil offers a noticeable advantage over metal plates. Importantly for the prospects of mass adoption in the automotive sector, motorsport has a longstanding reputation for being the testbed for new technologies making their way to passenger cars and the mass market.
The CBPs, developed with the University of Exeter, use a unique combination of materials and specialised surface treatments that allow optimised bonding of the new plates to the friction material. Brake pads using our technology have passed all industry standard and internal qualifications and are ready to make their presence felt in the $8.2bn brake pad market.
BRAKE-THRU is a new type of automotive braking system for future Low Carbon Vehicle’s. The aim is to provide this emerging industry with a lightweight and cost-effective alternative to grey cast iron rotors - the traditional material of choice for over 50 years. In future LCV’s, weight will be critical, where currently, car makers still have to fit cast iron rotors to their vehicles as no economically viable lightweight alternative exists. The weight burden does not merely extend to the rotors themselves [40kg for family saloon], it also forms part of the vehicle un-sprung weight. Unsprung weight reduction is highly beneficial for improving fuel economy and a key enabler that then allows the onward safe reduction of the sprung weight in modern vehicles, where any reduction has a positive effect on acceleration and cornering and also improves the ability of the suspension in maintaining tyre grip. The fuel savings from unsprung weight reduction are far more substantial than achieved by equivalent reductions to the car body. BRAKE-THRU is a 6 partner 2yr initiative, bringing together knowhow from the world of automotive friction materials, car brake system design, and the composites industry.