CLOVER, S.C. – PFC has announced that its CarbonMetallic brake pads were among the first pads to become certified as 100 percent copper-compliant by the Automotive Manufacturers Equipment Compliance Agency (AMECA).
 
PFC says it was ahead of the curve of the new California and Washington "Better Brakes" laws that require the phase out of copper and other harmful materials from brake pads. PFC Brakes claims it was one of the first brake pad companies to submit data from copper testing to AMECA and be certified 100 percent copper compliant. In order to attain certification, testing was done by a third-party laboratory, registered through a registrar while also providing the information publicly and marking the friction material’s environmental compliance level on the brake pad edge code.
 
The compliancy levels include the “A,” “B,” and “N” edge codes. Each edge code represents a different level of legal maximums of the different friction material weight percentages, which include: copper (Cu), asbestos, chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and cadmium (Cd). PFC pads have an “N” rating, which has the lowest amount of allowable materials, including copper containing less than 0.50 percent.
 
New "Leaf Marks" created to designate the compliancy level will be required on brake pad packaging starting in January 2014. This mark will give consumers and installers the ability to tell if the brake pads are environmentally compliant straight from the box.
 
PFC Brakes says it has been distributing copper-free brake pads through major automakers since 1982, and its new-generation copper-free Carbon Metallic pads are currently being sold for OE production. PFC CarbonMetallic brake pads meet all environmental requirements by being 100 percent copper-compliant and containing no asbestos, no chromium, no lead, no mercury, no cadmium, no antimony, and no cancer-causing ceramic fibers, PFC states.
 
To look at AMECA certifications, visit the AMECA website at www.ameca.org.