Choosing a Pedal Pad Compound: EPDM, SBR, TPE and When Each One Fails

Start with what the part touches

Oil or fuel contact rules EPDM out immediately — it swells. Weather, ozone and UV rule SBR out for anything exposed. A part that has to be soft under the hand rather than under a shoe is a TPE-SEBS job. Most interior pedal pads that see neither oil nor weather end up in SBR or EPDM on cost.

Then fix the hardness

Shore A hardness is the number that decides how the pedal feels. Too hard and the tread pattern does nothing; too soft and the pad wears through at the rib tips. It belongs on the drawing, and on our YAMAHA parts the grade is marked on the part itself.

The compounds we run

EPDM, SBR, TPE, TPE-SEBS on the elastomer side; PVC and PP with or without glass reinforcement on the plastics side. If you have not fixed a grade, send the service conditions rather than a guess and we will propose one.

Proving it

Shore A hardness, density, ozone, ageing, tensile strength, elongation to fracture, vulcanization and insulation resistivity, oil resistance and Mooney viscosity are all run in the Beijing facility next to the line. Where a certified laboratory is required we work with CTI (Centre Testing International Corporation) in Shanghai.