,
These state of the art caliper design features results in Performance Friction producing what we believe are the absolute state of the art in racing and street performance braking systems as well as friction materials.
 |
| This is a solid model made of clear plastic. It is made in a virtual prototyping machine from CAD data. A laser cures plastic in layers building a mock up of the part layer by layer. You can see how the piston caps, pistons and seals are oriented. The silver allen bolt between the pistons on the upper side of the caliper is the pad retractor device. |
Our final stop was the engineering department. Performance Friction’s engineering department has FEA, finite element stress analysis which helps their engineers design parts with minimal weight but maximum stiffness, The engineering department also has thermal and flow analysis capability for optimizing rotor venting and heat management in calipers. The Engineering department can also do SLA modeling where plastic replicas of their parts can be made off of CAD data that are strong enough to be mounted and test fitted.
 |
| Performance Friction’s work stations can do stress, thermal and flow analysis. This is useful when designing both calipers and rotors. |
We were impressed with the quality and technology of Performance Friction’s world class facilities and now have a stronger impression of their company beyond our impression than they just make our favorite brake pad compound! We want to thank the folks at Performance Friction for letting us crawl their plant, even the top secret areas so you could catch a glimpse of how a world class organization creates brake products.
Sources
