High-Performance Supercar Brake Caliper Lightweighting

In high-performance supercars, unsprung mass is the enemy of handling and acceleration. Standard aluminum brake calipers rely on bulk material to maintain stiffness, adding unnecessary weight where it matters most. A supercar manufacturer partnered with Cognitive Design to optimize their legacy caliper for a 300-unit production run, targeting aggressive mass reduction while improving thermal management and structural rigidity.

Brake caliper design for low-volume exotics sits at the intersection of competing constraints: extreme thermal and hydraulic loads demand robust geometry, yet every excess gram degrades suspension response and braking feel. Traditional workflows force engineers through sequential CAD/FEA loops — each cycle consuming days — and evaluating alternative manufacturing routes means running entirely separate design tracks.

With Cognitive Design, the engineering team explored three manufacturing-driven topologies (3-axis CNC, die casting, and DMLS) and two material candidates (Al-6061 versus Ti-6Al-4V) within a single generative session, with real-time meshless FEA validating each concept as it evolved.

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Results Achieved

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42% mass reduction

‍The optimized Ti-6Al-4V caliper achieved a 42% reduction in mass compared to the original aluminum design, dropping from 3.85 kg to 2.23 kg. The Topology Weaving approach created a bio-mimetic truss structure that connects piston housings through organic load paths, delivering superior stiffness at a fraction of the weight.

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85% faster engineering

‍Using Cognitive Design's integrated workflow, the engineering team compressed design exploration and validation from an estimated 140 hours with conventional software to just 24 hours, exploring three manufacturing strategies and two materials in a single generative study.

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16% stiffer under peak braking and 18% better heat dissipation

‍Despite removing nearly half the material, caliper deflection decreased from 0.12 mm to 0.10 mm under maximum braking load (2.5g deceleration at 200 bar hydraulic pressure), directly improving brake pedal feel and modulation. ‍The porous, high-surface-area geometry of the Topology Weave dramatically increased convective cooling capacity, reducing thermal buildup during sustained high-performance braking by 18% compared to the solid aluminum predecessor.

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