Aluminum composite brake rotos w/ flyash ULTALITE 1

[gt6racer2]

Hi,
I came across this material which appears to be a good low cost opportunity to reduce weight from rotors. Does anyone have any experience or comment on the concept ?

 

[patprimmer]

Don't rotors on a race car often exceed 800 deg C? Does this not melt aluminium?

Regards
Pat
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[swall]

I used to work for a Tier 1 brake supplier and we played around with the Duralcan cast material, which was 356 base alloy with 20% SiC loading. Our friction materials division made up pads formulated to work with the Duralcan. The project never went anywhere with our customer; I think Porsche or BMW used it for rear discs on one model. The Chrysler street rod (I forget the name of the car) may also have used it. One thing to keep in mind is that the heat capacity of aluminum, being 1/3 that of cast iron, results in less heat sink capacity being available and thus the potential for brake fade with multiple high energy stops. This is why it was only looked at for rear disc applications. As for fly ash--this is a wet dream idea to simulate the Duralcan material on the cheap.

 

[gt6racer2]

Thanks for the comments. I'm not in the brake field myself, but have changed enough iron rotors to know that they are heavy ! In other suspension components we are moving to lighter weight materials such as aluminum and plastics (where possible) - and those big lumps of iron ( not just mass - rotating upsprung mass !! ) look like a great opportunity. I'd also say that after many years of giving light weight some lip service, the big OE's are really starting to get serious - such that there is some (limited) funding available to change the status quo. Do you think it was cost or performance that prevented Duralcan going mainstream ? I was thinking cost.
BTW the Chrysler car was the Prowler.

 

[dgallup]

There are lots of light weight rotor alternatives. Look at the F1 carbon/carbon disks or the ceramic disks used on some Porsche and other high performance street cars. $$$$$

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[gt6racer2]

dgallup - yes those are well known (I'm one of those folks up at all hours to watch live feed of F1 qualifying)- but I don't see them as broad market any time soon.

 

[patprimmer]

As to unsprung weight, you can always mount them inboard, although that has other issues.

The mass and specific heat of the iron are part of what makes them efficient and the efficiency that comes from the huge heat sink is why OEM in 99.999...% of cases uses iron.

Regards
Pat
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