Tool Steel Brake Rotors

[Spadotto]

Hey I was wonder if any team here as ever gone with a tool steel brake rotor due to it's good wear properties because rockwell C between 60- 62?

How did it work out for you?

Any problems?

What was your diameters/ thicknesses?

Any problems with the heating and cooling of the steel and property changes?

Has any teams considered a tool steel or a high carbon steel which ISR Brakes recomends.

Thanks,

Adam Spadotto
UWO FSAE Brake Manager 2010

[Spadotto]

Hey I was wonder if any team here as ever gone with a tool steel brake rotor due to it's good wear properties because rockwell C between 60- 62?

How did it work out for you?

Any problems?

What was your diameters/ thicknesses?

Any problems with the heating and cooling of the steel and property changes?

Has any teams considered a tool steel or a high carbon steel which ISR Brakes recomends.

Thanks,

Adam Spadotto
UWO FSAE Brake Manager 2010

[ibanezplayer]

Spadotto,

I think you may be designing for a problem you may not have. Have you had excess rotor wear in the past? If not why are you designing for it?

We have had success with a "modern" design using "classic" materials.

[exFSAE]

There are many flavors of tool steel. A2, O1, W1, P20, D1, M2, M42, S7.. which do you mean?

Their MAXIMUM attainable hardness may be Rc60+, but that's not always the case. What will happen with repeated high heat cycling? What happens to wear resistance, hardness, and yield strength at elevated temperature?

And as was kinda mentioned before.. the biggest question is why? Why tool steel over ductile cast iron? For that matter, why either of those over (cheap!) 1018 plate that's been waterjetted or lasercut and ground?

[VFR750R]

Tool steel will not have the properties you think it might after repeated heat cycling to 1000+deg. It will behave much like cast iron...except be much harder to machine, and much more expensive.

Outright strength is also not a critical factor for brake rotors as probably .045 thick sheet could handle the loads. It's heat transfer, and heat capacity (thermal mass) which ends up being the critical design factor.