11 V May 2023

https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2023.52224
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com


Design and Analysis of Fixed Brake Caliper using

Additive Manufacturing
Gautam Kulkarni1, Anay Maheshwari2, Arya Mahajan3, Aniket More4, Dr. Ganesh Dongre(Guide)5
Department of Engineering, Sciences, and Humanities (DESH), Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, 411037, Maharashtra,
India

Abstract: The brake caliper's function is to channel the mechanical force generated by the driver's mechanical action on the
brake master cylinder—pressurized fluid—into an outward force that may be directed to the car's brake rotors. The effectiveness
of the brakes plays a significant role in a vehicle's performance, and the design of the caliper may be improved by taking into
account elements like the bleeding port, the brake pads, and the fluid flow path.
As two-wheeler calipers are often used in automobiles, the entire system must be dismantled, bled, and then reassembled involved
halves.
Custom calipers have been employed by commercial automakers to cut back on the extra work involved in developing and
producing RH and LH calipers. This project aims of this project are to create, evaluate, and maybe construct a front brake
caliper prototype for the Formula Student cars.
The desired outcome would be for the brake caliper to outperform all of the "firms" and set us apart from the other competing
teams. Additive manufacturing is a new and rapidly developing manufacturing method. The current manufacturing processes
for brake calipers separate components assembler.
But the major issue with this method is increased failure points. Additive manufacturing allows manufacturing these complex
components in a single structure without compromising structural integrity.
Keywords: Automobile, Brake Caliper, 3D Printing, Solid Modelling, Finite Element Analysis, Internal Routing

I. INTRODUCTION
Project design may be roughly classified into two areas. Analysis and design of the fixed brake caliper. Review of the Brake Disc
Rotor By applying pressure to a brake disc with a pair of calipers to force brake pads against it, the disc brake is a form of wheel
brake that employs friction to limit wheel rotation. A disc that is connected to the wheel hub and a stationary housing called a
caliper together make up a disc brake.
Repair centers may replace the discs in response to any disc issue. This is typically done when the price of a new disc is cheaper
than the expense of hiring people to resurface the previous disc.
This is mechanically superfluous, rendering the discs dangerous to use, unless the vane has corroded, or the discs have reached the
minimum acceptable thickness specified by the manufacturer. Determining the right design and analysis of the brake disc rotor by
us is therefore crucial.
The axle casing or stub axle, or another permanent component of the car, is where the caliper is fastened. Between each piston is a
friction pad, and other mechanisms such as retention pins, spring plates, and other devices hold the disc in place. The caliper has
passageways that allow fluid to enter and exit each housing.
To prevent bleeding, the channels are also connected. Each cylinder has a rubber sealing ring between it and the piston. The piston
diameter must be large enough for the calipers' force to outweigh the necessary braking force in order the best braking performance.
Furthermore, as we are modifying the caliper to meet our requirements and include new, sophisticated functions, good compatibility
with the caliper is necessary.
General fixed brake calipers available in the market have external routing in between the pistons on both sides of the caliper. This
method increases the risk of leakages. We have designed a method where we keep internal, through the body of the caliper, without
compromising the structural integrity of the caliper. This reduces the complexity of the components and also the performance
remains up to the mark.

©IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved | SJ Impact Factor 7.538 | ISRA Journal Impact Factor 7.894 | 2872
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

II. METHODOLOGY/EXPERIMENTAL
A. Synthesis/Algorithm/Design/Method
As this is a fixed caliper with two pistons are 3 main aspects taken into consideration while deciding the design parameters.
1) Appropriate Pressure is Generated in the Caliper
A hydraulic braking system becomes effective after a certain force is being been applied to the disc by the brake pads. The brake
caliper produces this force by generating enough pressure in the hydraulic system.
When the driver presses the brake pedal, pressure is developed in the master cylinder. As the entire hydraulic circuit is filled with
hydraulic fluid, the pressure is the circuit same throughout. This means for a fixed force from the driver we can amplify the force by
adjusting the diameter of the ports in the master cylinder and brake caliper as pressure is directly proportional to force and inversely
to the area it is acting on.

2) Wall Thickness
The pressure developed in the caliper pistons is considerably high, as the force required is also high. This means that the wall of the
pistons should be strong so that the walls do not deform, which will make the seals fail or even the structural strength might be
affected resulting in the fracturing of components. The wall thickness is calculated using ‘Hoop Stress’ and ‘Longitudinal Stress’.
The thickness was kept according to design and then validate according to the ultimate tensile strength of the material.
∗
σt =
∗

a. Hoop Stress
∗
σl =
∗

b. Longitudinal Stress

3) Thickness of Connecting body Between both Sides

The pads are applying force to the discs and apply equal and opposite normal force to the pads and in turn on the caliper. The disc
and caliper don’t have any freedom of movement in the direction of the force. This means that force develops stress in the body of
the caliper. The connecting body on both sides of the caliper restricts the motion of the caliper body in the direction of force; hence,
stress is developed there. While deciding design parameters this stress has to be taken into taken consideration. The calculation is
done using the concept of stress developed due to eccentric loading. The thickness was decided according to design and then
validated according to the material's ultimate tensile strength.

©IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved | SJ Impact Factor 7.538 | ISRA Journal Impact Factor 7.894 | 2873
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

σt =
( ∗ )∗
σb =

c. Stress due to Eccentric Loading

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Lightweight Parts
Weight plays a crucial role in whether a race is won or lost. To perform well, sports cars must be relatively light. As a result, the
majority of their components are made of aluminum, which is light but relatively strong. Motorsport vehicles can greatly benefit
from this aspect of 3D printing. Parts for motorsports can be easily made with 3D printing, and the materials used will keep them
light. Lattices, which can be used inside the parts to keep their structure strong while reducing weight, material use, and costs, are an
additional solution to that problem. Also, 3D printing allows us to add material wherever necessary only reducing weight due to
excess material. The brake caliper design has very little excess material for safety purposes.

d. Model of the brake caliper. The model has very less excess material.

B. Rapid Prototyping
Vehicles are built out of many parts, which need to be secure and fully functional. To achieve the ultimate form, weight, strength,
and resistance, the parts must be tested, and many prototypes are needed to cover all the requirements. Additive Manufacturing is
the answer to that. It is cost-effective, rapid, and highly accurate. The prototypes can perform and behave very similarly to the final
part allowing tests to provide accurate data and analysis. We designed a brake caliper according to calculations made for Aluminium
as the material. But before metal 3D printing a caliper, we printed the brake caliper using ABS in an FDM 3D printer. This model
helps verify the feasibility of the model and validate its assembly with other parts of the vehicle so that the final component will
have minimum to no errors.

©IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved | SJ Impact Factor 7.538 | ISRA Journal Impact Factor 7.894 | 2874
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

(a)

(b)
e. Rapid Prototyping of Brake Caliper

C. New Design Freedom

In addition to being cost-effective and quick, 3D printing offers completely novel design options. It makes it possible to quickly
modify car parts and create prototypes and gives you a lot of leeways when creating and evaluating brand-new concepts. The speed
with which adaptations can be made along with rapid prototyping. In our brake caliper, we included internal routing for the brake
fluid from the inlet to the pistons. Then we used Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to validate that the stresses developed can be
sustained without affecting the internal routing of the caliper. The material considered for FEA was Aluminium 7075 with a yield
strength of 480 MPa. The results show that the maximum stress on the body connecting both sides of the caliper, which has the
internal routing going through it, is 68 MPa which is a little different from the physical calculations which were affected due to the
approximation of values for making calculations easier. Also, FEA results show only 0.2 mm displacement. These results show that
the Factor Of Safety of the component is ‘7’.

f. Stress Analysis Results

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 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

g. Displacement Analysis Results

h. Displacement Analysis of Piston

i. Stress Analysis of Piston

©IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved | SJ Impact Factor 7.538 | ISRA Journal Impact Factor 7.894 | 2876
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

IV. MATH
A. Inputs
Name of quantity Symbol Value Unit
mass m 170 kg
deceleration in g a 1.2
height in C.G h 0.265 m
wheelbase b 1.54 m
coefficient of friction(tyre & road) 1.3
coefficient of friction(pad & disc) 0.45
radius of tyre(mean) Rt 0.2286 m
radius of front disc Rf 0.078 m
radius of rear disc Rr 0.073 m
pedal ratio pr 5.89
initial mass on front m/2 85 kg
initial mass on rear m/2 85 kg
acceleration due to gravity g 9.81 m/s^2
area of M.C piston aream 0.000191 m^2
area of calliper piston areac 0.000774 m^2
diameter of caliper piston dia1 0.0314 m
thickness of wall t 0.0053 m
area of supporting structure areaS 554.43 mm^2
I for eccentric loading I 15309
distance of force from neutral axis e 32 mm
distance of neutral axis Y 9 mm

B. Outputs
Quantity Value Unit
normal on 1 tyre 589.1096 N
braking force 2244.508 N
normal on pad 2493.897 N
pressure in fluid 3222179 Pa
force on mc piston 613.9799 N
force on pedal 104.2411 N
force in kg 10.626 kg
Stress(longitudinal) 134.0587 Mpa
Hoop Stress 268.1175 MPa
stress(Ecc.-tensile) 4.498128 MPa
stress(ECC.-bend) 46.91635 MPa

V. FUTURE SCOPE
The brake caliper also has to be able to sustain high temperatures. But the reason for the caliper heating up is due to heat transfer
from the brake disc to the caliper through the atmosphere. We can make the design to ensure that the caliper doesn’t heat up too
much to start deforming by taking some cooling measures in the design. The next goal is to print the caliper using a metal 3D
printer.

©IJRASET: All Rights are Reserved | SJ Impact Factor 7.538 | ISRA Journal Impact Factor 7.894 | 2877
 International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET)
ISSN: 2321-9653; IC Value: 45.98; SJ Impact Factor: 7.538
Volume 11 Issue V May 2023- Available at www.ijraset.com

VI. CONCLUSION
This project aimed to develop a lightweight brake caliper for the motorbike that is not currently commercially accessible by utilizing
contemporary additive manufacturing technology. We have encountered several challenges throughout the course of this project,
which have necessitated finding alternate solutions to keep moving forward. To do this, we used Solidworks and finite element
analysis. Even though everyone involved in this project had a learning curve, we were able to create a brake caliper that satisfied all
the specifications. All of the calculations and specifications used to create the design were based on data acquired from motorcycles
using well-known characteristics. Overall, we believe that the objective was achieved, and we have created strong foundations for
further growth. These results together show that the design is safe, feasible, easy assembly, lightweight, accurate, and easy to
manufacture complicated components.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank ‘Peeps Of Blefuscu’ for their assistance in rapid prototyping.

REFERENCES
[1] “Design of Machine Elements” by ‘V.B. Bhandari’
[2] Obringer, Auston; Kucera, Robert; Massarelli, Steven; John, Jared; and Finer, Michael, "Additive Manufactured Formula SAE Brake Caliper" (2021). Williams
Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1419.
[3] Shantanu Pawar, “Design And Manufacturing Of Custom Caliper With Finite Element Analysis Of Brake Disc”, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
Maharashtra, India.

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