Friday afternoon and theres a meeting in the Cricket Room (Board Room) so I thought I might look busy and do "research".

Refer here ... http://www.carbibles.com/brake_bible.html



"There is a quiet but major revolution happening in the world of brakes, and its being brought about by a Canadian company called NewTech. Rather than the piecemeal improvements we've seen over the last few years, with slight design changes, and materials improvements, the new system is a radical redesign from the ground up. NewTech have designed a disc brake system called "full contact disc brakes". They looked at traditional pad and rotor design and figured that the pads only contact about 15% of the rotor surface at any one time. With a change of design, NewTech have been able to add 5 more pads to the system so that 75% of the brake rotor is in contact with the pads at any one time.
With traditional pads and rotors, the brake rotor is clamped between the pad. With the NewTech design, the brake rotor itself becomes a floating rotor, similar to those found on motorbikes. It is covered with a 'spider' (the red structure in my renderings below) and the spider has 6 brake pads on the inside of it. The hydraulic system acts on fully circular elastomer composite diaphragm behind the brake disc, mounted in the black structure in the renderings. This had 6 pads on it which push the entire disc out against the 6 pads inside the spider. This provides and even force across the entire disc to push it out, and the disc gets an even contact with all 12 pads.
To ensure the brakes remain cool, the system is covered in cooling fins connected to the outer pads to dissipate heat. The inner pads are fitted with a moulded thermal barrier made of a composite material. Special inserts made of a variety of frictional materials are distributed evenly on the entire surface of the pad. The range of materials is used to ensure performance under diverse conditions.
NewTech believe that the system has considerable advantages over conventional brakes with better cooling, higher strength and reduced noise and vibration.
NewTech have sold truck and bus versions of these brakes into the haulage and public transport industry, but now Renault is considering introducing this system on its cars in conjunction with a new brake-by-wire system."

Something on the lines of what I remember the brakes of a 747 to look like , only theirs has several brake discs (7 I think , it was about 10 years ago I saw them) sandwhiched between several full diameter brake pads . Squeeze the suckers together and you have phenominal braking power .....

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interesting...but do they look as cool as the single caliper discs?
basically the only advantage i can see is that you could make the brake smaller to make use of the fact you have more effective braking...other than this: isnt the braking power of current braking systems already sufficient? if you look at those DoT graphs of stopping distances...once the brakes are actually engaged the car stops pretty quickly...its the driver and the tires that's the weak link in the chain super powerful "LOCK WHEELS NOW" brakes wouldn't improve stopping distances drastically...i wouldnt have thought...sticking wider wheels on the car would probably help more...

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

What is the unsprung weight of that set-up?

What is the manufacturing cost?

Shed loads!

But just imagine , it'll make it into some supercar , then some manufacturer will put it in their hypo models and then the ricer's will be after it .... Like I said earlier , it's a scaled down version of the concept on jumbo's , but they weigh 250tonnes empty and have to stop in 4 klm from 180kph , bit different for a 1 tonne car from 120kph in a few hundred meters . Better get some really sticky tyres .....

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... and we will still be driving around in 40 yo cars with a 50 yo design

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"Life is not like a box of chocolates... it's more like a jar of jalapenos. Whatever you do today, may burn your arse tomorrow."

Yeh, a bit of an overkill on a car that weighs less tan 700kg

The aircraft industry have used this type of brake system for 50 years,
works well when you are trying pull up 100 ton in 500 meters

Blue

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Keep shiny side up