sprocket / brake rotor combination

[Broderick]

What materials are teams using for sprockets that double as a brake rotor (aka sproder)? Aluminum with a steel center? Could you use 6061 aluminum as the rotor material and not have problems?

Broderick
Rutgers Formula Racing

[Broderick]

What materials are teams using for sprockets that double as a brake rotor (aka sproder)? Aluminum with a steel center? Could you use 6061 aluminum as the rotor material and not have problems?

Broderick
Rutgers Formula Racing

[Sam]

probably want to use 7000 series dude and maybe anodise it

sprotor sprotor sprotor

that is such a cool word

[Kevin Hall]

Search for "sprotor" there is a previous post.

[madman]

From memory, ali rotors are usually 2024 or 4000 series aluminium - but I can't remember for sure, or why. You certainly have to hard anodise it. And check your operating temperature range against the grade of aluminium and its temper.

Rotor wear is important. Standard metallic pads for cast iron rotors will rapidly eat an aluminium rotor. Check out the Wilwood pads specially made for aluminium rotors.

You can really use any material you like for a brake rotor - so long as you make it big enough to handle the heat input, loads and wear. However, I saw one team at design get ripped by the brake judge because they couldn't justify their material choice for their rotors.

Good luck with it.

Brian

[JonBoy]

heehee, swarf under brakes..... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

edit - (talk to the NUS boys about that one....)

[Beast]

We used a 6061 hard anodized sprocket/rotor (from sprocketspecialists) with Brakeman #3 compound with no problems this year. Probably ~15 hrs of driving (enough to wear one set of slicks to the cords) plus the competition. I haven't measured the wear, but it's pretty minimal IMO as the writing on the sprocket is still legible somewhat. 500lb car.

[Daves]

You may not want to mount your rear brake(s) directly to the differential. A design judge in Pontiac stated that he disliked how Cornell and UTA mounted brake rotors to their differentials. When questioned, the judge said Cornell responded that they just hadn't thought of it. The judge's reasoning was that the heat transfer from the brakes to the differential might be detrimental to performance of the vehicle.

[Charlie]

That's some judges opinion. Don't base your decisions on that. I'm not sying they are right or wrong, but never say 'Don't do this, the judges hate it' becuase the judges aren't FSAE teamers and are only going on intuition. They are smart guys and probably right often, but if you think your diff is getting hot, DATALOG it. Judges want proof of your decision, not necessarily what they expect to see. People that try to cater to judges opinions get burned year after year because a different judge has a different opinion, and if you can't prove why you did something other than 'the judges said it was better' you have a tough time getting them to believe it.

I mean, how detre\imental was Cornell's rotor on thier diff? They only dominated the dynamic events. Their job is to prove why its better, maybe they didn't do such a good job.

[Paul V.]

I was wondering if anyone purchased a sprotor caliper? If so Where did you get it?> I can't seem to find one.

Paul Vaughan
UAH FSAE