Brakes Calipers Design And Manufacture

[Ahmad Rezq]

Hello guys,
I decided to design and manufacture the brake calipers for our 2015 car, for those who manufactured their calipers would it deserve to do this?

any suggestions because i don't know from where to start ? suggestions about the readings, the suitable material, the design process, manufacture process, and the knowledge i need to finish this work
thank you.

[Brett MacPherson]

What's the advantage of designing and manufacturing your own calipers? Why not use someone already on the market?

[MileyCyrus]

Rule A1 is a good reason to design and make your own. Isn't the whole point of the competition to give students first hand design and manufacture skills, among other things.

As far as designing your own goes, for a design process, I'd advise reading all of this: http://www.fsae.com/forums/showthread.php?362-Reasoning-your-way-through-the-FSAE-design-process. As far as a component goes, what constraints does it have, what forces are involved, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using different materials. If you systematically work all these things out in a structured process, the general design should fairly well present itself to you.

[Drew Price]

Texts on hydraulics and heat transfer and material properties would be good places to start. The calipers are very simple, but also easy to get wrong because of the fairly high forces, high temperatures, and tight tolerances required to make them work properly.

[Claude Rouelle]

Amahd,

Not sure why you want to reinvent the wheel while you can buy it cheaper elsewhere?

Sure brake caliper design, manufacturing, testing, development is good engineering project and so is to make your own steering rack, your own ECU, your own data acquisition, your own engine...

I once met a team that wanted to build their own accelerometers so I asked if they were competing in Formula Student or in an electronic hardware competition.

I also once judged a very poor car which didn't even pass technical inspection but which has an impressive telemetry system. But it was clear the electronic "guru" was working in parallel with his team.

I guess the decision comes to the efforts, time, budget it takes to make your specific own parts Vs the potential results and the benefit of learning as a person and as team. If your team has already several year of experience and a few performance and reliability proven records it could be good idea. Otherwise....

[MCoach]

Ahmed, I would actually recommend the Brembo P34 from experience. It's one of the cheapest ones they make, yet very well sized for an FSAE car and available almost anywhere in the world.

It's used by many teams with great success.

[Jay Lawrence]

Ahmad,

Don't be discouraged from doing these things the hard way. Just make sure you can justify your decisions. "We decided to make our own custom brake system because..."