Greg Vyletel on Friction’s Future

Power Stop’s VP of Engineering and Quality — and incoming chair of the SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition — breaks down what actually goes into a brake pad, why EVs are rewriting the rulebook on corrosion and dust, and where AI realistically fits into formulation work today.What does it actually take to balance stopping power, noise, rotor wear, and cost in a single brake pad? In this episode of Coffee Brake, Brian Hagman sits down with Greg Vyletel, Vice President of Engineering and Quality at Power Stop and incoming chair of the SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition — one of the largest gatherings in the brake industry.Vyletel walks through what a modern non-asbestos organic or ceramic friction formulation actually contains — often 15 to 20 raw materials, compared to the handful used in older semi-metallic compounds — and the balancing act of improving one property, like NVH, without quietly wrecking another. He also digs into a challenge more formulators are running into as EV adoption grows: without residual heat from a combustion engine, a brake corner can be left to develop a crust of ice and road grime overnight, one of several durability issues the aftermarket is still learning to design around.The conversation closes on where the brake corner is headed next — from brake-by-wire adoption to the possibility of EVs eliminating rear friction brakes altogether — plus a candid take on how much of what gets called “AI” in friction design today is really just numerical modeling with a new label. Vyletel also makes his case for why the industry’s next generation of engineers needs to be cross-disciplined, not just mechanical.About the SAE Brake Colloquium & ExhibitionNow in its 44th year, the SAE Brake Colloquium & Exhibition brings together OEMs, tier one and tier two suppliers, raw material providers, and academia — what Vyletel calls the industry’s version of a one-stop supply-chain visit. This year’s event runs September 20–23, 2026, in Palm Desert, California. Registration is open at sae.org/events/brake.