Abstract
The wet brakes used on a forklift often produce noise upon engagement. The elimination or reduction of this squeal noise is an important task for the improvement of the comfort of those operating these machines. In this paper, a test rig was developed for the testing of brake noise, and the squeal noise was measured with this apparatus. Automatic transmission fluid and grooves in the material of the friction-plate pad were found to be the main factors causing squeal noise. In order to identify the characteristics of this type of noise, signal analyses of the noise were conducted using different frequency spectra. The experimental results showed that the viscosity of the automatic transmission fluid and the groove pattern on the friction-plate pad largely affected the reduction of the wet brake squeal noise made by an industrial forklift.