Capabilities

Bonding

Several years of bonding friction material enables Great Lakes Friction Products the experience to offer the highest quality bonded friction assemblies. Quality materials and extensive developed processes reinforce our philosophy that any questionable bond is unacceptable.

• Material analysis to familiarize us with to what we are bonding. Whether it is "high tech" plastics, powdered metal, aluminum or carbon steel, we have the knowledge and the resources to offer the highest quality bonds.
• Engineered bonding fixtures to insure quality bonds done in efficient means.
• Extensive and regulated material preparation is performed on all materials before bonding. Our bond is only as good as the surfaces we adhere to.
• The highest quality adhesives are used to enable our bonds to maintain their strength and integrity with high shear loads at elevated temperatures.

Welding

Capabilities that include Spot, Projection, Mig, and CNC Robotic Mig are another means in which we maintain an edge. To satisfy the ever-increasing demand of supplying fabricated friction assemblies we felt it vital to maintain an up to date welding department. Since the acquisition of a CNC Robotic Welder, it has opened the door for Great Lakes Friction Products to expand its in-house capabilities to include a variety of heavy-duty brake bands.

Riveting

Recognizing that riveting is still necessary in some applications, Great Lakes Friction Products maintains three automatic riveting machines with the versatility to handle several different styles and sizes.

Molding

Ingeniously engineered mold design is Great Lakes Friction Products advantage when confronted with complicated molding and integrally molded assemblies. When a molded part is necessary, Great Lakes Friction Products can offer cost cutting solutions on processes and tools. Working with both compression and flash molding techniques, it gives Great Lakes Friction Products the flexibility of alternative mold designs. Integrally molded assemblies offer a mechanically assisted bond between friction material and steel. This can be a good alternative for applications that encounter high temperatures in application. Friction material is loaded directly onto and into a steel carrier. Strategically sized and located holes in the carrier offer a place for the material to flow and form a mechanical grip to the backing plate.

Die Cutting

Low cost tooling is one of the many benefits of a die cut part. Since implementing a "traveling head die cutting press", Great Lakes Friction Products has been able to offer reductions in both tool costs and setup times. Die cutting is ideal for softer, thinner materials. Parts are cut out from material with razor sharp knives in a "cookie cutter" like fashion. A properly maintained die can hold tolerances of +/-0.005" over several thousand parts.

Finish Grinding

Surface, rotary, conveyor belt and Gardener "double disc" grinders enable Great Lakes Friction Products to hold flatness, thickness, and parallelism tolerances to 0.001". The grinding capabilities make it possible for Great Lakes Friction Products to offer parts with "out of box" torque.

Finish Machining

When parts are not suited to the grinding process, machining is often a viable alternative. Our production lathes are capable of maintaining thickness and run-out tolerances of 0.001".

Grooving

For parts that would require oil or wiping grooves, Great Lakes Friction Products has the capabilities to handle plates up to 42" diameter. The operation of three grooving machines help eliminate any bottlenecking which can often occur in secondary or finish processing.

Stamping

In these days of "lean manufacturing", Great Lakes Friction Products has found it best to rely on themselves rather than outside sources. In-house stamping gives us the flexibility to schedule all of our needs in accordance with our ever-changing customers' requirements. Punch press sizes from 5 to 150 tons makes Great Lakes Friction Products more than just a friction material supplier. With presses and additional support equipment, Great Lakes Friction Products is able to offer customers parts from start to finish.