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Secure critical friction joints in your car chassis and powertrain designs with 3M™ Friction Shims
Boost performance, reliability and design freedom in one package.
3M™ Friction Shims make it possible.
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By specifying 3M™ Friction Shims into your car chassis and powertrain designs, you can enhance the static coefficient of friction by up to 5x for improved performance and reliability at peak loads – all while expanding design flexibility.
3M combines world-class expertise in technical ceramics with a century of experience in the automotive industry. 3M™ Friction Shims are ultra-thin, compact, reproducible, extensively tested in house and highly customizable to your precise design requirements.
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250 million 3M™ Friction Shims in use in vehicles worldwide without a single known reported field failure.
Strengthen and streamline your automotive design with friction shims
Friction enhancement for car chassis and axle designs
Control movement in bolt connections and friction shaft connections and manage high force loads by incorporating 3M™ Friction Shims into your car chassis and axle designs. Various grades work on multiple dissimilar mating surfaces to help strengthen joints and bear the weight of large and sophisticated components. By helping stabilize the chassis, they also help in NVH reduction for enhanced passenger comfort and experience.
Additional resources for 3M™ Friction Shims
Enhancing coefficient of friction for EV chassis-mounting applications
Large and sophisticated EV batteries require chassis-mounting solutions that can handle stress without adding weight. 3M™ Friction Shims enable bolted joint connections to withstand up to 5x more shear force, helping bear the weight of heavy battery packs. They work with dissimilar mating surfaces such as aluminum, e-coated, painted and composite-material surfaces. They even help downsize components by allowing the use of smaller and lighter bolt connections and fasteners.
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By helping strengthen and secure car chassis friction joints, 3M™ Friction Shims allow for new configurations such as skateboard chassis.
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They reinforce bolt-on battery mounting systems with no redesign required.
Dynamic coefficient of friction enhancement for eMotor applications
Maximize friction torque transmission in ePowertrain applications. Harness the full power of your eMotor. 3M™ Friction Shims can enhance coefficient of friction in torsional joints by up to 5x, helping ePowertrains handle the torque increase of powerful electrified engines.
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Help smaller engines maintain or increase power density by reducing the number and size of certain components with 3M™ Friction Shims. Make the best use of small packaging spaces.
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They can be specified into your ePowertrain designs or dropped in as a quick-fix solution.
Friction enhancement for classical and advanced ICE powertrains
Boost power in ICE and hybrid vehicles. 3M™ Friction Shims offer up to a 5x increase in engine torque transmission, enabling more powerful and efficient ICE engine designs. By reducing the number and size of certain components, they can help smaller engines maintain or even increase power density.
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3M™ Friction Shims expand design freedom to enable new and unique designs such as pancake motors.
- Gearbox
- Pancake electric motor
- 3M™ Friction Shims
- Internal combustion engine
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By increasing engine torque transmission, they help increase power output with no costly redesign required.
- Dampener
- Sprocket
- 3M™ Friction Shims
Benefits at a glance. By specifying in 3M™ Friction Shims, you can:
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Secure critical friction shaft joints
- Maximize the static of coefficient of friction in bolted joints
- Preserve and strengthen friction joints in e-coated chassis, battery mounts and suspensions
- Manage shear forces from large and heavy EV batteries.
- Boost torque transmission in powertrains to handle electrified engines. -
Optimize design
- Handle higher force loads without changing parts or component sizes.
- Strengthen connections with large range of dissimilar mating surfaces
- Standardize designs across different model types.
- Enable skateboard platforms (in EV chassis) and pancake motors (in eMotor applications). -
Vehicle lightweighting
- Downsize components by using smaller bolted joints and fasteners
- Increase power density in small engines and make optimal use of small packaging spaces.
- Achieve automotive weight reduction and extend battery range in electric and hybrid vehicles. -
NVH reduction
- Secure and stabilize the car chassis by dampening micromovements in bolt connections.
- Enhance passenger comfort and experience.
Boost grip capacity and downsize bolts with 3M™ Friction Shims
The following study illustrates the modeled force (kN) at slippage exhibited by various bolts in an automotive car chassis. The slippage point is defined as a displacement of 0.02 mm or greater.
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Smaller bolts with no design change
Comparing the smaller M10 bolt to the larger M12 bolt, using the larger bolt produced a minor 1.4x increase in force at slippage. In contrast, adding a 3M™ Friction Shim to the smaller bolt connection produced a 4.9x increase over the same bolt with no friction shim. It enabled the bolt connection to withstand a substantially greater force load with no design changes required.
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Design with smaller connections
3M™ Friction Shims can help small bolted joints withstand equal or greater force loads as larger bolts. The M8 bolt with shim exhibited a force at slippage of 19.8 kN, greater than the 12.0 kN exhibited by the far larger M14 bolt with no friction shims.
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Frequently Asked (FAQ) Questions for 3M™ Friction Shims
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What are friction shims and how do they work?
3M™ Friction Shims consist of a nickel-coated steel substrate partially embedded with diamond particles. When placed between two mating surfaces in a joint bolt connections and applied with pressure, the diamonds “bite” into each surface to create a microform fit. This allows for a static coefficient of friction of up to 5x greater than in a conventional bolted connection.
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What static coefficient of friction can be achieved?
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The static coefficient of friction is a system property. It is influenced by many parameters within the complete tribological system including mating materials, surface treatments, roughness, flatness, environmental conditions and more. Based on our testing, the coefficient of friction can be increased by up to a factor of 5 by adding a 3M™ Friction Shim to a joint.
The following graph displays test results of different materials with and without 3M™ Friction Shims.
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What mating materials do they work with?
3M™ Friction Shims work with all commonly used metals: aluminum, carbon steel, stainless steel, cast iron, titanium, magnesium and more. They also work with many pairings of these metals. We have also developed special grades of shim parts ideal for e-coated steel. They work with a variety of nonmetal mating materials including glass fibers and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics.
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How can they help standardize my designs?
3M™ Friction Shims help bolted joints withstand higher loads and shear forces without the need to change parts or component sizes. In automotive applications, for example, this enables standardized designs across different model types. Additionally, you can increase power density in small engines by reducing the number, size and weight of components and making optimal use of small packaging spaces.
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Pre-attachment solutions for 3M™ Friction Shims
2D shims with tabs
Tabs on the inner or outer diameter of the shim fit into grooves on the mating parts. If your components have the required grooves, this is the lowest-cost attachment option.3D clip shims
Clips on the inner or outer diameter of the shim enable attachment where tabs are not an option. 3D clip shims are ideal for chassis applications.
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Drop-in friction joint enhancement for quick fixes
We’ve all been there: testing produces unanticipated failure rates and your prized design hangs in the balance. With 3M™ Friction Shims, you can strengthen and stabilize critical bolted joints with no costly redesigns required. Ultra-thin 3M friction shims fit within most existing engineering tolerances for quick, seamless friction torque increase. We’ll help you expect the unexpected.
Let’s Get Started.
Don’t take our word for it. Request a sample and test 3M™ Friction Shims in various sizes and grades. Our expert engineers will help find the perfect fit for your application.
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