Spherical-faced washers for hydraulic caliper disc brake alignment
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In hydraulic caliper disc brakes, tight clearance between the caliper piston and housing piston bore can cause piston lock-up if not centrically loaded, requiring cumbersome and skill-dependent shimming to align the brake mounting bracket with the rotor for proper operation.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating spherical-faced washers between pistons and stators that can shift to align with the rotor, allowing the stators to become parallel and preventing piston lock-up, thus enabling proper brake operation without the need for shimming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If tight clearance is used between piston and housing piston bore, then braking performance is improved, but piston lock-up occurs when piston is not centrically loaded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies spheroidality by providing spherical-faced washers between the pistons and stators. These spherical surfaces allow the washers to self-align and shift position, enabling the piston assembly to accommodate minor misalignments and maintain centric loading even when the mounting bracket is not perfectly parallel to the rotor, thereby preventing piston lock-up while maintaining tight clearance for braking performance
2Ease of manufacture
If mounting bracket is not parallel to rotor, then installation is simplified, but brake cannot operate properly until shimming is performed
Solution Approach 1:
The spherical-faced washers provide a self-aligning mechanism that automatically compensates for mounting bracket misalignment. The system self-adjusts during operation as the washers shift to their proper position, eliminating the need for installer skill-dependent shimming operations while ensuring proper brake operation without requiring perfect initial alignment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic adjustment capability through the spherical-faced washers that can shift position. This allows the brake assembly to adapt dynamically to mounting variations, transitioning from a static fixed-position system to one that can self-correct alignment issues during operation, thereby eliminating the need for precise pre-alignment and shimming
Data Source
AI summary
A hydraulic caliper disc brake includes an opposing pair of pistons adapted to act on an opposing pair of washers adapted to act on an opposing pair of stator assemblies, each of the pistons comprising a spherical piston face, each of the washers comprising a spherical washer face abutting a respective one of the spherical piston faces, and a straight washer face opposite the spherical washer face and abutting a respective one of the stator assemblies.