By Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Believe it or not, what you see the man in the photo on this page holding in his hand is an automotive brake pad made from kaolin. The man’s name: Dr. Peter Ekemezie of Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, (UNIZIK), Awka.
Speaking to Campus Sun on the process leading to the invention, Dr. Ekemezie who hails from Anam in Anambra West Local Government Area and who acquired his technical know-how from Federal Polytechnic, Idah, Benue State, before going to read for his post-graduate degrees (his Masters and PhD) at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, said that it took him five years of intensive research, to come up with the product, at the cost of over N10 million.
According to him, he was working with raw materials made of asbestos to produce the same brake pad, when the scientist in him began to probe into what else could be used that could be found locally and that would be cheaper and healthier for people.
His story: “This invention is accidental. I had a stint with Ibeto Group, with their Fusion Department involved in the production of brake pads. I discovered that the major raw materials they were using was asbestos, but asbestos is carcinogenic. So we began to think of something to use in place of asbestos based on health reasons.
“Aside health reason, we import asbestos and the cost is high. So we were also looking for a cost-effective replacement for the asbestos used in producing the automotive brake pad. So I thought of this kaolin. In fact, the engineer of the plant and others all laughed and said that kaolin will collapse in the machine used to compact the lining material with the iron blank.
“But ignoring them, I compounded my lining material, removed asbestos and added varying amount of kaolin and I discovered that all the different amounts added gave better result than asbestos. So we began to subject the brake pad produced to various brake performance tests, velocity and all that and it was good.
“Eventually, I decided to adopt it as part of my PhD dissertation and when my work was being examined, the external examiner recommended it for NUC (National Universities Commission) award and then my University got interested. They said I should submit the brake pads produced.
“We produced it for a number of vehicles like Toyota Camry, Volkswagen, Audi 80, and Peugeot. The university sent it independently to Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON). The result came recommending it as a very good product and the university paid for the analysis. The anchorperson is the Director in charge of Research, Prof. Frank Ogbo. The university mandated him to start the process of patenting the product.
“So the point we are now is that it is undergoing patenting; we have not commercialized it. Recently, we started talking with the Innoson Group of Motors to buy the franchise, but the university said they should hold it until I get my patent certificate. It is only then we will discuss on whether it is going to be a one-off purchase or royalty payment as time goes on.”
Though this correspondent went to him with the intention of watching him demonstrate, in practical ways, how the brake pad works with the automobile models he mentioned, he confessed that he was unable to do so, reason being that he did not have, at the time of the visit, any of those cars on which the product had been tested. “If you have, bring,” he said. “And, I will demonstrate for you how it works.”
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is said to have, in a letter addressed to authorities at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, certified and approved the product. But for weeks, Campus Sun waited in vain for a copy of the said letter to be scanned and sent to it. Up till the time of going to press, it never came, despite Dr. Ekemezie’s several promises and assurances.
But in the chat with Campus Sun, he assured that the brake pad “had been tested on vehicles, modern and old; it is perfect. This product has peculiar properties that are actually sterling. For instance, the product has what you call average day performance temperature of 92 Degree Celsius which will make it to withstand wear during use. When you march on brake, the temperature is usually high and the pad hot. But the brake pad produced using this technology resisted heat at 400 degree Celsius as no change in form was recorded after putting it through tests.
“Again, the average internal share strength observed, which is 7.97 Newton per millimetre square, makes it to withstand lot of pressure. It has very good internal share strength that won’t allow it to wear away over time. Also the pad produced from this technology was unaffected after immersion in water and oil. This shows that unfavourable condition cannot destroy the structure of the brake pad.
“The average safety gravity of 7.82 ensures the compactness of the constituent particles used in compounding the lining materials. But we have reduced the percentage porosity to about 0.42, making it impact-able and resistant to fluids because like in Lagos or Port Harcourt where you have salty water, if you use brake pads there, you have to be changing them often. But it is not going to be so if it is made of this kaolin. Of course, the technology is not just open like that: you don’t just bring any amount of kaolin and then mix and get this perfect result; it was as a result of painstaking research.”
Corroborating Dr. Ekemezie’s claims, the University’s Director of Research, Innovation and University Industry Relations, Prof. Frank Ogbo, said: “we have tested it here locally within our university, within our laboratory with the facilities that we have and we have even sent it to the Standard Organisation of Nigeria for evaluation and they have returned a report of excellence. The pad is better than the brake pads we have in the market today.
“The problem is that our industrialists are not forthcoming. What we are doing now is trying to find people we can transfer this technology to. The ideal thing is to find an investor who will come and we agree on very useful terms and then he takes on this technology, mass-produces it, makes profit and then makes the health of the people better.
“We thank The Sun newspaper for coming to find out what we are doing and do hope that when you publish this some businessmen and manufacturers will take sufficient interest in the product. We are not interested in moneymaking; that’s not the objective of the university. The objective is to develop this and uplift the society. Of course, we will get a little money from it but that’s not our primary objective.”
Kaolin is one of the mineral resources that Anambra has in large deposit, especially in Ukpor, Nnewi South Local Government Area of the state.