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Stoptech Big Brake Kits featuring Forged Calipers

December 15th, 2011 Comments off

StopTech’s complete line of high performance and racing calipers is forged to help produce the strongest calipers around, ensuring consistent and predictable brake caliper performance, stop after stop. In testing, StopTech’s patented forged calipers have exhibited the least amount of flex of any aftermarket or OE caliper.

With forging, an aluminum billet slug is heated and shaped using compressive forces. This produces a better grain structure that improves a material’s resistance to fatigue.

In contrast, the casting process involves pouring liquid into a mold, which can produce a finished product with regional density irregularities. That is why castings are more prone to cracking.

That is why StopTech calipers are all forged, and why StopTech calipers are the best calipers on the market. We’ll take a quick tour of how Stoptech produces the calipers featured in their popular big brake kits.

In this picture you can see the billet caliper slug as Stoptech receives it from their foundry in comparison to same part after finish machining. The pictures below illustrate the steps that take the slug to this final product. All Stoptech calipers start with the same forged slug with CNC finish work tailoring it to a specific application.

The raw forgings are placed in custom made jigs for final machine work on one of the many CNC machines that fill Stoptech’s California location. Each kit features various piston sizing to help maintain proper brake balance while using the OEM master cylinders.

Stoptech’s trophy sport line spends extra time in the CNC machine where additional finish work and machining leads to a 15% weight savings over their standard calipers.

Fresh out of the CNC, these calipers are checked and put in que for their final finish.

After being removed from the CNC, each caliper is sent to the dipping tank where they are anodized in a natural grey finish before the logo is painted in Stoptech’s trademark black and red.

The freshly coated calipers are inspected, assembled, and pressure checked on a test bench before being packaged and shipped to an authorized Stoptech distributor. These Trophy Race Kits are used on many of the top competitors in the SCCA Pro Pirelli World Challenge Championship as well as in Grand-Am and other race series. In addition to these premier racing series, you can also find these brakes on the vast majority of project and employee owned vehicles here at Titan Motorsports.