Brakes are used to control the motion of the vehicle. The slowing down of a vehicle depends on several factors such as braking force, vehicle weight and total braking surface area. It also depends on brake system conversion from wheel to heat and the heat removal from brake components. This is the main difference between a drum brake and disc brake.
Now we will see the difference between a drum and disc brake in detail.
Drum brakes
Drum brakes are the early brake system in automotive brake system. The components in a drum brake are built in a round drum and it rotates along with wheels. That is why it is called drum brake. Inside it is with a set of shoes. The shoes are forced against the drum and slows down the wheel, when the brake pedal is pressed. When a vehicle is coming down from a hill with a heavy load, the need for usage of brake is high in this case as it loses it effectiveness. Also when the vehicle is going faster and needs to apply brakes frequently, this system become ineffectiveness. It is because of heat production in the process of conversion of kinetic energy of wheel into thermal energy of heat.
Disc brakes
Disc brakes also works on the same principles of drum brakes like friction and heat. But the design is different from drum brakes. Instead of metal drum in drum brakes, rotor and caliper are used in disc brakes. The rotor in the disc brakes is fully exposed to outside air. This helps the disc brakes to constantly cool the rotor.
Advantages and disadvantages of drum and disc brakes
- Cost: The cost of drum brakes are less expensive when compared to disc brakes.
- Water resistance: Drum brakes are not water resistance, the performance of drum brakes is poor when wet. Disc brakes are water resistance and more reliable than drum brakes even when they are wet.
- Heat resistance: When the drum brakes get heated because of its continuous apply, the performance will decrease. The disc brakes have more resistance from heat because of its exposure towards open air and cools the components.
- Maintenance: Even if the initial disc brakes are expensive, they are easy to maintain than the drum brakes.
In most people’s opinion and tested results say that, disc brakes are better than drum brakes. But both of them have their own pros and cons, so consider the one that best suits your driving needs.
