Material:
Carbon-ceramic clutch plates are made of woven carbon fiber material which will be converted together with resin into carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Further process interactions are carbonizing, compaction and siliconizing. The siliconized material can only be formed by jet cutting and wet grinding.
 

Characteristics:

• Low density (2,0 g/cm³)
• High strength
• Low abrasion in long life terms
• High temperature resistance and thus improved friction performance and
  high energy density with small installation space
• Low thermal expansion
• Good friction performance

Use:
Carbon-ceramic clutch plates are used in dry-running multiple disk clutches. Due to the fact that the production and the maintenance of parts of this construction method are much more time-intensive and more expensive, these clutches are generally only build into race or rally cars. However, the most variation possibilities exist for this kind of clutch. The reason is that there are more than one friction surface available and thus the entire friction surface can be adjusted by changing the clutch inner plates and carrier plate as well as the diameter. High power transmission and misuse security are characteristical for this kind of clutches.

The most efficient multiple disk clutches consist of a titanium cage and clutch plates made of carbon fiber reinforced carbon and are used for example in the Formula 1. The advantages are the high temperature resistance of the used CFC material and the energy density which can be built into a small installation space.
Disadvantages of these clutches are the significantly fluctuating friction value over temperature, compression and sliding speed. Because of this factor the use in series cars is impossible. The relatively high abrasion would lead to short life time and would only cover a service performance of 5,000 to 10,000 km.

An advancement in this sector is the multiple disc clutch of the Porsche Carrera GT. It consists of two carbon-ceramic drive plates (170x6 mm) and three inner plates with organic friction pads. With this super sports car it was possible to proof road-worthiness of the friction couple and to reach a life time of 100,000 km.

Carbon-ceramic clutch plates are also used in Le Mans long distance race cars as well as in Paris-Dakar rally cars. Friction partner in these cars are pads made of organically bounded multi-component mixtures or sintered metal.