Method and plant for the thermal treatment of friction elements, in particular brake pads

A method for the thermal treatment of friction elements comprising a convective heating step wherein friction elements are transported through a convective oven that is heated in combination and in which:

• i) the friction elements are arranged laid, in an orderly manner, upon a plurality of trays each having a perforated resting plate upon which the friction elements are laid in a position next to one another only, but not overlapped;
• ii) the trays are piled up on top of each other whilst being kept distanced from one another in a stacking direction by an amount that is greater than the thickness of the friction elements in the same stacking direction;
• and
• iii) the convective heating step is performed within a convective tunnel oven having conveyor means passing through it, upon which conveyor means the trays which are piled up and that contain the friction elements are placed, thus forming a plurality of groups upon the conveyor means, arranged side by side, of piled up trays such that by advancing the conveyor means the friction elements are transported through the convective tunnel oven in the direction (D1) of travel.

A plant for the thermal treatment of friction elements, comprising a tunnel convective oven presenting an inlet opening at a first end and an outlet opening at an opposing second end and conveyor means which passes through the tunnel convective oven, the conveyor means having an extension in length that is greater than that of the tunnel oven, in order to have first and second opposite ends of the conveyor means arranged externally to the convective tunnel oven, from which they emerge by means of inlet and outlet openings, respectively;

• the plant further comprising:
• i) a plurality of trays each having a perforated resting plate designed such that the friction elements can be laid directly onto the perforated resting plate in a position next to one another only, but not overlapped;
• ii) the trays being designed to be piled on top of each other whilst being kept distanced from one another in a stacking direction by an amount that is greater than the thickness of the friction elements in the same stacking direction;
• iii) the conveyor means being designed to be loaded, at its first end, with groups of piled up trays containing the friction elements and to carry in a direction of travel (D1) a plurality of groups of piled up trays arranged side by side through the tunnel convective oven beyond the outlet opening, at a controlled speed.