Abstract: A body for a disc brake caliper has a mounting side limb and a non-mounting side limb, each limb housing at least one hydraulic brake cylinder. The body has a peripheral stiffening band that extends about an outer lateral surface of at least one of the limbs. In a preferred embodiment, a peripheral stiffening band extends about an outer lateral surface of each of the limbs. The stiffening band or bands provide stiffness in the body under dynamic braking conditions with a minimum of material. A method of designing and manufacturing a body for a disc brake caliper involves analyzing the stiffness of the body under dynamic rather than static braking conditions and producing a caliper body with a desired level of stiffness under dynamic conditions while reducing the amount of material used to a minimum.

Abstract: A body for a disc brake caliper has a mounting side limb and a non-mounting side limb, each limb housing at least one hydraulic brake cylinder. The body has a peripheral stiffening band that extends about an outer lateral surface of at least one of the limbs. In a preferred embodiment, a peripheral stiffening band extends about an outer lateral surface of each of the limbs. The stiffening band or bands provide stiffness in the body under dynamic braking conditions with a minimum of material. A method of designing and manufacturing a body for a disc brake caliper involves analysing the stiffness of the body under dynamic rather than static braking conditions and producing a caliper body with a desired level of stiffness under dynamic conditions while reducing the amount of material used to a minimum.

Abstract: A fixed type disc brake caliper (8, FIG. 1) has a body (10, FIG. 1) machined from at least one solid piece of material. The body comprises a pair of limbs (12, 14) interconnected by spaced bridging members (16, 18), each limb housing one or more hydraulic cylinders (26, 28, 30). The caliper has a cooling fluid passage (45, FIG. 1) for circulating cooling fluid through both limbs. In each of the limbs, the passage extends through both an upper peripheral wall region (42) between the cylinders and an upper face (38) and a lower peripheral wall region (44) between the cylinders and a lower face (40), so that the cooling fluid passage at least partially surrounds opposing side wall regions (54) of the, or each, cylinder in the limb. Advantageously, the passage (54) is formed by milling a channel (46) of varying depth around the pistons from an outer side face (48) of each limb. A cover plate (82, FIG. 6) is welded to the outer side face of each limb to close the open side of the channel.