Disc brakes vs drum brakes

Both braking systems coexist between the vehicles of the market, do you know the advantages and disadvantages of each one? Everyone has good and bad things. In high performance cars, the use of disc brakes is essential, but in more modest cars, drum brakes can give a good result at a much lower cost.

Currently, most of the vehicles on the market have disc brakes , but there are still some models, above all the most economical that mount drum brakes . Do you know the differences between both systems? Which is better? . Let’s see what they both consist of and their respective advantages and disadvantages .

In drum brakes the components of the brake are inside a cylinder called a drum that rotates in solidarity with the axle of the wheels. When we step on the brake pedal, the shoes are pressed against the drum generating the friction necessary to stop the vehicle. For its part, disc brakes use the same basic principle of braking, friction, but its design is different. They consist of a disc that rotates in solidarity with the axle of the wheel and that is exposed to air, which is braked by a clamp that contains two plates (pads) that generates the friction necessary to brake the vehicle.

The advantages of the drum brake system are that they are very effective, their cost is low and they have a long life, but they have one big drawback: ventilation . When subjected to high stresses the braking system loses efficiency as much heat is generated inside the drum that can not be quickly dissipated. In the disc brakes the opposite happens, the heat dissipates easily since all the elements of the system are exposed to the air.

Attending to the construction of both braking systems we could conclude without hesitation that disc brakes are better than drum brakes and yet, most modest modelsthat are currently on the market come equipped with drum brakes on the wheels you back . To understand this it is necessary to consider the fact that when a vehicle is braked, most of the braking power comes from the front wheels, so a system with discs in the front and drums in the rear allows adequate braking for Most vehicles.

The most efficient cars are always equipped with large disc brakes on both axles. This is because when stepping on the brakes of a car we cause friction in the disc that generates heat. The more speed the vehicle has, the more kinetic energy it will possess, the more heat it will generate and the more difficult it is to stop it, which must be compensated with a higher pressure and a larger braking area to generate more friction and dissipate more heat .

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