As per the brake team’s last post, Starting to Stop, we are in the process of designing a brake pedal that will successfully actuate the calipers of the car, via steel brakes, once mounted to the suspension. In that post, we highlighted the pedal we would be mounting onto the levers by showing a screenshot of the pedal design in CAD.
Team member Amrit Singh (11) working with Nigel Barnett (10) to redesign the pedal in CAD.
Since that post, we have learned through testing the actuation of the levers with the pedal. This knowledge led us to understand that the design was simply incompatible with an efficient braking process as it was very difficult to attach the pedal to the levers. As a result, we redesigned the pedal to increase compatibility with our levers.
Redesigned pedal (front view)Redesigned pedal (back view). The grooves present provide a more ergonomic fit for the brake levers.
Once we accomplished and printed the new iteration of the pedal, I worked with fellow team member Ginny Sunde during a Saturday session to machine our mounting bracket for the complete assembly of the brake system to the floor of the car.
Team member Ginny Sunde (12) using a mill in the shop to punch out holes for cylindrical steel. The round fixture on our levers, which is traditionally for a bike handlebar, fit snugly onto these cylinders.Sample image of what our final iteration of line brake mounting will look like. We will add two more tubes to the main rectangular frame, each with its own lever, then attach our pedal over the lever using its specifically CAD’ed grooves.
Now that we have finalized our designs of the braking system for this iteration of the car, brake team will be working to machine special adapters to mount our caliper brakes to the suspension of the car. Once this is accomplished, all that is left for us to do is weld our mounting frame to the chassis of the car to ensure stable, reliable braking.
