Titanium brake shims work as heat shields to maintain braking power

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When brakes are under stress and working hard, they get extremely hot. The longer you are on the brakes (ie, entering a corner from a long straight), the more stress and heat that is generated. This heat has tremendous effects on the effectiveness of the brakes as well as on the brake components themselves. Rubber, for example, can quickly melt in that situation, or in any heavy braking scenario. The heat created from the friction of the hard-working brakes can actually boil the hydraulic brake fluid, which even further reduces stopping power. Heat is transferred from the rotors and pads directly into the brake fluid by means of the caliper pistons. As the fluid boils, it releases air into the brake lines which leads to brake fade and forces the brake pedal to go to the floor instead of maintaing hydraulic pressure to move the caliper pistons. This where titanium brake shims come in.

Unlike most production cars, many race cars have expensive brakes that have titanium caliper pistons. Titanium is an element that has very low thermal conductivity. This means it is very effective as a heat insulator rather than a dissipator. In other words, you do not want the caliper pistons to transfer heat (in this case to the brake fluid), you want them to work as a heat shield to minimize the heat transfer and keep the brake fluid as cool as possible.

Since most of us drive production cars, our brake caliper pistons contain aluminum and steel. Both of which have much higher thermal conductivity than titanium (8 times for steel and almost 20 times more for aluminum when compared to titanium) and allow a greater amount of heat to transfer to the brake fluid.

Titanium brake shims work like heat shields to prevent the heat of the braking effort from affecting the other brake parts. The thin titanium shim is placed between the back of the brake pad and the pistons to prevent heat transfer to the brake fluid.

For spirited drivers, cars that see the track or in conditions where braking is crucial, titanium shims are a very cost effective option to mantain brake effectiveness and performance.

In addition, maintaining cooler temperatures for brake parts ensures a longer life and less need for brake fluid changes. Rebuilding brake calipers can be very expensive.

Titanium shims are water jet cut for exact specifications. Includes brake lube.

Available For: C63 AMG, CLK63 AMG (incl. Black Series), E63 AMG (W211, W212), CLS63 AMG, SL63 AMG, SLS AMG

 

Simon, this looks like this is a cool product. My thanks to Evosport for keeping up the black series aftermarket. I have a couple of questions however about this product.

I've seen titanium shims on the market before but I've always wondered why no one has made a set out of a better insulator, such as a high density ceramic or glass fiber mat. Obviously you want something very rigid that won't deteriorate under the pressure but it seems like there would be better non-metalic options.

Also, has there been any research on the effects of the added heat on the pad itself? It seems to me that the added heat will increase the temperature of the friction material possibly leading to better performance but slightly reduced life.

Keep up the good work! Thanks,
Jeff

 

Jeff,

All good questions. Titanium is used becaues it's abundant, fairly inexpensive and relatively easy to work with. Again, these are applications for street cars that see some track time. Titanium is more than capable of doing the job and most important being very cost effective for the consumer. Yes, there are other material that can be used, but again everything comes at a price. And while titanium may not be the absolute best, it is very capable and all around choice.

Yes, you could see additional heat generated to the pad since energy needs to go somewhere, but it's not very much. Keep in mind there isn't constant load on the brakes so heat will generate and dissipate. Besides, of all the brake components, it's better to reduce life of the pad and maintain brake effectiveness than put additional wear on more expensive items like the pistons/calipers/etc.

 

Simon, thanks for the clarification. That's a great point about preventing damage to the caliper and piston seals, I didn't even think of that.