Custom Brake Disk Suppliers

Hello everybody,

i'm part of formula student in Ireland this year and working on the braking system, i have been asked design a new brake disk which was completed a while ago but now i'm looking for somewhere that could water jet cut it for us.
i have been on to a good few places and haven't had any look as most places have denied us because of our disk mounting holes position on a 108 mm diameter.

we are looking to make our disk made from a mild steel or low carbon steel, at 4 mm thick with an outer diameter of 192 mm to fit our 10" wheel, if anyone could recommend somewhere in either the UK or Ireland that could water jet our disks that would be fantastic.

Previously we had used ABE in the UK but our technician wants somewhere else as they apparently had problems.

Thanks in advance.

Can't really help you, but we use ISR brakes and get custom disk cut by them. ISR is located in sweden, but if you can't find anyone else then they might be able to help you.

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Originally Posted by JSR

Can't really help you, but we use ISR brakes and get custom disk cut by them. ISR is located in sweden, but if you can't find anyone else then they might be able to help you.

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OH, i remember them, when i first began sourcing calipers they were ones that i was looking at, how long did it take for your discs to arrive?

You could potentially laser cut (if that's more accessible for you?) them from 5mm plate then have them ground back. That's what we've done for years and haven't had any issues.

To be fair, you don't even need to bother to get them ground. Sheet metal material tolerances are plenty for a brake rotor. In the US, sheet metal ~4mm has a thickness tolerance of +/- 0.152mm (0.006"). Once you bed in the brake pads you won't even notice the difference. I've gone both routes and have since dropped a manufacturing operation.

If the other processes aren't readily available to you, you could always mill the brake rotors.

I go with Adrian. we did laser cut our rotors from 5mm mild steel plate then grinding them.
or you can mill them as Mcoach said.
our 2012 car used stainless steel milled rotors and they were very good.

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Originally Posted by Villiams

OH, i remember them, when i first began sourcing calipers they were ones that i was looking at, how long did it take for your discs to arrive?

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Can't really remember, but think it was within a week, give Acke a call (+46 8 530 37 671) and hear with him if you don't find any other alternative.

Ill pitch the laser cutting idea to our technician and see if he goes for that, but he had insisted on buying water jet cut discs.

Regarding the mild steel plate material, what make was it and did you apply your own heat treatment or was there any other operation applied?

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Originally Posted by Villiams

Ill pitch the laser cutting idea to our technician and see if he goes for that, but he had insisted on buying water jet cut discs.

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I have a fundamental problem with people who insist on being loyal to one manufacturing process only; that's very strange.

On another note, I'm not from Ireland but a quick 1 minute Google search shows 1) Aqua Design Ltd in Killorglin, 2) Waterjet Creations in Collon, 3) JC Enviro, 4) Waterjet Profiles in Longford, 5) Currie Engineering, 6) Graham Engineering in Lurgan, and 7) Timoney Tec.

There are many more; I just got lazy copying all their names. Have you talked to all of them? Someone must be willing to help you out.

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Originally Posted by jd74914

I have a fundamental problem with people who insist on being loyal to one manufacturing process only; that's very strange.

On another note, I'm not from Ireland but a quick 1 minute Google search shows 1) Aqua Design Ltd in Killorglin, 2) Waterjet Creations in Collon, 3) JC Enviro, 4) Waterjet Profiles in Longford, 5) Currie Engineering, 6) Graham Engineering in Lurgan, and 7) Timoney Tec.

There are many more; I just got lazy copying all their names. Have you talked to all of them? Someone must be willing to help you out.

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I understand what your saying, i have considered those companies for their water jet, however own technician wants somewhere that makes brake discs currently so that additional treatment, he mentioned heat treatment (i'm not familiar with the process) can be applied by them, those companies would only be able cut the desired shape and then we would have to find somewhere else

I did consider using the our own lab equipment in our college but since we've never made a brake disc the technician doesn't want to take the chances, but thanks for the thought.

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Originally Posted by Villiams

I understand what your saying, i have considered those companies for their water jet, however own technician wants somewhere that makes brake discs currently so that additional treatment, he mentioned heat treatment (i'm not familiar with the process) can be applied by them, those companies would only be able cut the desired shape and then we would have to find somewhere else

I did consider using the our own lab equipment in our college but since we've never made a brake disc the technician doesn't want to take the chances, but thanks for the thought.

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Why do you want to use heat treatable steels on a part with such a wide and varied operating temperature range? No offence intended but is your technician an engineer for the team? If so he should be familiar with the requirements for the rotors material, as well as the effect of process (water cutting, laser, wire EDM, machining, heat treatment, grinding) on the material properties.
As an example, we have used nodular cast iron, both using Wire EDM, machining and watercutting along with stress relief + finish grinding. Watercutting can be a bit of a pain, issues being, taper on the cuts, cut surface smoothness and tolerances. We avoid lasercutting of the nodular cast due to the localised reformation of the carbon spheres into carbon shards, which, under thermal stress effectively develop into cracks.