I won a SEMA award..

[rjwoods77]

I know this isnt the proper place to post but who cares. I work for SSBC(stainless steel brakes corporation) and I just won the "GM High Performance Design Award" for the 8 piston caliper i designed. Cool little resume builder. The caliper is a direct bolt in for f-250 and f-350 ford trucks using stock rin and rotor. The test truck we put it on stops so much better than the floater calipers it replaces. But floaters are junk anyway so anything is really better than those. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif 13" rotor, 16" rim 8x1.5625" pistons. Some of the parts in the caliper (like the pads) were mandated to me so I didnt have total design freedom but I did the best I could with the constraints I had. Basically I could have done even better with a completely blank sheet is what i am getting at.
I also designed a 6 piston version that is basically the same caliper but minus a piston. Think of accordian effect with the caliper arc. I designed these by myself which was really fun. Presently working on a 4 piston version. I'll get pics up as soon as I have them.

[rjwoods77]

I know this isnt the proper place to post but who cares. I work for SSBC(stainless steel brakes corporation) and I just won the "GM High Performance Design Award" for the 8 piston caliper i designed. Cool little resume builder. The caliper is a direct bolt in for f-250 and f-350 ford trucks using stock rin and rotor. The test truck we put it on stops so much better than the floater calipers it replaces. But floaters are junk anyway so anything is really better than those. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif 13" rotor, 16" rim 8x1.5625" pistons. Some of the parts in the caliper (like the pads) were mandated to me so I didnt have total design freedom but I did the best I could with the constraints I had. Basically I could have done even better with a completely blank sheet is what i am getting at.
I also designed a 6 piston version that is basically the same caliper but minus a piston. Think of accordian effect with the caliper arc. I designed these by myself which was really fun. Presently working on a 4 piston version. I'll get pics up as soon as I have them.

[Jersey Tom]

Let me know if you design an ultra light, high performance 2-piston caliper specifically for FSAE use. We'd be willing to test and use a whole set of them, completely free of charge.

[Marshall Grice]

so you're saying that gm gave you an award for designing ford parts? cool. maybe they're just upset you didn't design them for a c3500.

[rjwoods77]

Marshall,

Thats funny. They will be going on a bunch of stuff but thats where it started.

[Tony K]

Very impressive, congrats. I just checked out the website, and it looks like SSBC is starting to make some nicely engineered systems and not just the bolt on rear disc brake conversions using a generic GM caliper that always come to mind when I think of SSBC. I'd love to see pictures of your calipers, they sound pretty sweet. Maybe next you can work on a rear disc brake kit with some nice calipers for a 2004 Tundra DoubleCab 4x4... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

you want to send me a set to test on my Silverado?

[Psychosis]

that's cool, can you explain why you went for pistons of all the same bore. i always thought that if you have more than 2 pistons, you graduate the diameter to reduce brake squeel and improve pedal feel, etc, etc. not havin a dig, just curious,
cheers
Michael

[rjwoods77]

The point was to have a fixed mount caliper that had equal or more area than the stock 2 piston floater. Turns out we ended up with 8% more piston area but the rigidity of the caliper along with the non-floating design also helped with the dramatic improvment in pedal feel and power. Brake squeal is a function of friction and vibration of the pads on the retaining clips, not of piston config. Differential bore setup would have been nice but do do it properly(which i calculated) would end up with a caliper with 25 percent less piston area. That is always a tradoff with a differential bore is that you end up reducing the pad force in the search for even pad force. Yeah this caliper has uneven pad force distribution, but it really isnt a problem because of how thick the pad material is. (you wont ever taper wear it enough for it to be a problem within a reasonable amount of miles between pad changes) The cure for the system would have been to change the master cylinder size for something smaller(i.e. higher line pressure) and use a proper differential bore caliper but that would drive the cost through the roof. This caliper set is a direct bolt on using the stock rim, rotor,and hydraulic lines. We could have used a different pad( better shape and area) but that would have required the costs to be even higher. Like I said, there were certain system contraints that I had to work around(cost mainly) that required cerrtain comprimises. Taper pad wear, while impotant, is something that can be considered acceptable when you are in a situation like this. If money was no issue, then I would hae done an 8 piston caliper with 8 seperate pads, a 2 piece floating rotor, flex lines, hard anodized aluminum pistons with titanium or pheonalic heat transfer inserts, monoblock high modulus al-mmc. But this application called for a simple bolt in answer for a 3/4 and 1 ton trucks that have problems with braking while hauling loads or towing stuff. Sort of like formula, design for the intent and not what you want.

[Garlic]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I know this isnt the proper place to post but who cares. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most people do but no suprise that you don't. This is FSAE discussion. There's an Off Topic section. Unless you are just so full of yourself you want your 'look at me post' in the most traffic!

C'mon, if everyone posted as much garbage in here as you it'd be a mess. It's great you won an award, I'm sure it is well deserved but I wish you had more respect.

[Frank]

get a life garlic

rob, when you're finished with the optimised fsae caliper, UQ will "test" a set too http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[rjwoods77]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jersey Tom:
Let me know if you design an ultra light, high performance 2-piston caliper specifically for FSAE use. We'd be willing to test and use a whole set of them, completely free of charge. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Was thinking about doing something like that. The ones I am making for our car will be 4 piston(4x1") that will work on our 6" to 7" inch rotors. I was laying down so designs today and I am going to make a set that will take up to a 7.25" rotor (relative max for a 10" rim) I am considering selling them in the future if they work out well for a resonable price. Next year, that is if anyone thinks I can actually do something around here. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

If anyone has any questions on caliper design, I would be more than happy to help out. There isnt too much on seal groove design, bleeder and crossover tube nut specs and I have them all on modeled up on the computer. The stuff people would use for formula is all the stuff I have (5/16 and 1/4 thread bleeders, 3/16 tube flare nuts, standardized sae round,square and quad rings).

Garlic,

Easy champ. I have had these things done and tested on vehicle for more than 2 months now. I wasnt going to even mention them but I got some pretty decent recognition so I felt like tossing it up there. I got the whole thing written before I realized what section I was in and just added that first sentance when i got done writing it instead of copy,paste,waste of time.

[rjwoods77]

Pic posted in gallery.

[Storbeck]

Rob, why such small piston diameters? If you're at 8% more area with twice as many pistons, they must be much smaller than stock.

I'm not arguing that you should have done so, I'm legitimately curious.

Andy

[rjwoods77]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Storbeck:
Rob, why such small piston diameters? If you're at 8% more area with twice as many pistons, they must be much smaller than stock.

I'm not arguing that you should have done so, I'm legitimately curious.

Andy </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dual 54's are stock on the f-250 which are just absolutly massive. The factory rotor has a monstrous bell on it which limits the size of pistons you can put on the caliper on the lower side. The factory rim outside half has a really acute taper to it which limits the space on the top end. Again, design contraints limit your creativity. I was wrong on one thing, its 9.7% more than stock, not 8%. The big difference is the elimination of the floater system. The amount of flexure in the system just leads to sloppy pedal feel. Also on a side note the floater caliper loaded with the bracket weighs 27lbs. The fully loaded v8 caliper, which bolts directly to the f-250 knuckle which has a rediculous 10" center to center bolt dimension, weighs just a tad under 15 lbs.

[absolutepressure]

I was originally going to say this sarcastically, but you might as well go all the way around. Maybe you could design them for semi trucks or something. It would look pretty sick, and the friction force on a loaded truck may be huge enough to handle it. I'm not really sure, it was just a sarcastic comment that may have some standing. You could call them "Wraparound calipers" or something. I'd buy 'em, maybe.

[Chris Boyden]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Next year, that is if anyone thinks I can actually do something around here. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I still thing you're a jackass! j.k.

Actually, the caliper looks awesome. Congrats..it's gotta be pretty cool to have a design that has such a large market like an F250.

[Buckingham]

The "wraparound calipers" have been done by Saleen I believe in S7 racing application. I don't recall any detail, but I thought I saw it in AEI or Racetech or something a few years ago.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

I also think your are whoreing up the fsae forums with your general bs, but besides that, thats a lota pistons, looks cool, is that an external crossover that I see sticking out of the one end? If so thats kind of weak, why not go internal to clean it up and have less chance of it leaking/being damaged.....

[rjwoods77]

With internal crossovers you need a decent cross section to drill from the split to the outer piston. The size contraints limit this for this particular caliper. Most usually have the same problem unless they are monoblock castings where the can make any kind of internal geometry. But even then they usually have a crossover. (AP,alcon and brembo)