Yep! Well dang it I painted them and thought gees why aren't these aluminum.... So thought I'd ask
I'll translate this from sarcasm to English for ya.Dang, you must have upgraded everything else on your car to care about caliper brackets weight
I hear about the stresses, and such... Despite the sarcasm... Many cars have lighter designs... So was curious if anyone else thought of this with all the other "crazy" ways of lightening these things up
Because aluminum's fatigue life is drastically shortened when you have repeated tension/compression WITH repeated heating and cooling. Ever wonder why fixed aluminum calipers are so massive? Probably has something to do with making the part nearly impossible to flex for better pad wear but for keeping the calipers from cracking when pushed hard. I can't imagine a floating caliper setup weighing less by using aluminum given the strength requirements necessary to seriously mitigate fatigue cycling.
^This. Unlike steel (ferrous materials), aluminium (non-ferrous materials) will fail after so many loading cycles even if kept within elastic deformation. Hard to say when without computer analysis, but i dont think its worth trying for a safety item such as brakes. Especially just to save marginal weight.
Just like someone else said, with enough time and money im sure you could engineer something lighter, stronger, and wont fail until a few million cycles, but there are better bangs for the buck.
Because aluminum's fatigue life is drastically shortened when you have repeated tension/compression WITH repeated heating and cooling. Ever wonder why fixed aluminum calipers are so massive? Probably has something to do with making the part nearly impossible to flex for better pad wear but for keeping the calipers from cracking when pushed hard. I can't imagine a floating caliper setup weighing less by using aluminum given the strength requirements necessary to seriously mitigate fatigue cycling.
I hear about the stresses, and such... Despite the sarcasm... Many cars have lighter designs... So was curious if anyone else thought of this with all the other "crazy" ways of lightening these things up
Not only that, but wheels and brake rotors are unsprung weight.Hit lightweight wheels, brake rotors and driveshaft first. Rotating mass is best place to lose by far
Just because steel or ferrous material is kept within the elastic deformation does not mean it is immune to fatigue failure. Steel is simply more resistant to fatigue than aluminum because of it's material properties.
Lol, as an engineer for the biggest oilfield part supplier in the world, I can tell you that we do in fact use factors of safety well below 2. The lowest I've used is a 1.1, and that's a particular standard that's well established. Aerospace commonly used SFs below 1.5 in their applications to save weight.Your right, but an engineer is not going to design a part that sees a factor of saftey under 2. At these levels the material will be under its endurance limit and essentially be infinite in terms of practical application.
A nonferrous material does not have the luxury of a endurance limit and will always have a finite life in terms of cycles.
Your right, but an engineer is not going to design a part that sees a factor of safety under 2. At these levels the material will be under its endurance limit and essentially be infinite in terms of practical application.
A nonferrous material does not have the luxury of a endurance limit and will always have a finite life in terms of cycles.