BRAKING NEWS Fun Facts About Ford Rotors
Rotors seem like simple little discs of steel that seem to just rotate with the wheels. They look like lazy little pieces, how important could their job really be. However, rotors are far more complicated than they seem. We’ll talk about some of the parts of the rotor and talk about the jobs they do that you don’t see.
Let’s start with the basic designs of the rotors, which actually range widely. For most economic applications, you’ll see a single piece and non-vented rotor. In most front rotors and higher performance rear rotors, you’ll see the single piece and vented rotor.
For the ultimate in performance, you’ll see two piece vented rotors where the rotor hat, where it attaches to the hub of the wheel, and disc as two separate pieces. Within all of those are cross-drilled and/or slotted faces, which do a job of removing the gasses the come from the brake pads as they heat up.
Vented rotors have vanes cast in between the planes of the rotor faces. They utilize the same principal as the centrifugal fan blade, where it is a constant volume of air flowing out rather than a constant mass. When the impellers rotate, the gas near the impellers is thrown-off from the impellers due to the centrifugal force and then moves into the fan casing.
As a result the gas pressure in the fan casing is increased. The gas is then guided to the exit via outlet ducts. After the gas is thrown-off, the gas pressure in the middle region of the impellers decreases. The gas from the impeller eye rushes in to normalize this pressure. This cycle repeats and therefore the gas can be continuously transferred.
Rotors are typically made of cast iron but super-high performance applications will see more exotic materials such as carbon fiber or a ceramic composite. These exotic materials will generate and dissipate heat at a very high rate and are a preferred choice in racing environments that do not require the use of iron discs.
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1956 Ford F-600 photo courtesy of Stephen67.
