Well, it's time to buy new front rotors. I'm looking for a quality rotor, but its hard to find data on solid faced rotors. Since Kiriu is the manufacturer for the OEM brake rotors, and their rotors are about $55, half Nissan's price, I was seriously considering buying those. However, if there is any benifit to payinig more for Brembo or Centric blanks I would surely consider using those instead.

 

The are 15 internationally approved grades of cast iron and over 100 individually developed formula [amount of Silicon and Carbon [plus a few other elements] added to tweak the material for specific changes.

"The metallurgical properties of a rotor determines its strength, noise, wear and braking characteristics. The casting process must be carefully controlled to produce a high quality rotor. You cannot just dump molten iron into a mold and hope for the best. The rate at which the iron cools in the mold must be closely monitored to achieve the correct tensile strength, hardness and microstructure.

When iron cools, the carbon atoms that are mixed in with it form small flakes of graphite which help dampen and quiet noise. If the iron cools too quickly, the particles of graphite do not have as much time to form and are much smaller in size, which makes for a noisy rotor.

The rate of cooling also affects the hardness of a rotor. If a rotor is too hard, it will increase pad wear and noise. Hard rotors are also more likely to crack from thermal stress. If a rotor is too soft, it will wear too quickly and may wear unevenly increasing the risk of pedal pulsation and runout problems.

The composition of the iron must also be closely controlled during the casting process to keep out impurities that may form "inclusions" and hard spots. One rotor manufacturer says they sample the molten iron every 15 seconds to make sure the composition is correct. The molten metal is also poured through ceramic filters that trap contaminants. Even the sand that is used to make the molds is specially treated to control moisture content. This helps keep the sand in place and prevents core shifts that can affect porosity, dimensional accuracy and balance.

The grade of cast iron that is used in a rotor may even be changed to suit a particular application. One aftermarket rotor manufacturer uses a special grade of "dampened iron" to make replacement rotors for 1997-2002 Chevrolet Malibu and its sister vehicles (Olds Alero, Olds CUtlass and Pontiac Grand Am). In this case, the original OEM rotors turned out to be too noisy so General Motors switched to a dampened grade of iron to cure the problem. "

 

but its hard to find data on solid faced rotors. ?? By brand name yes.

http://www.tupy.com.br/downloads/gue...rons_brake.pdf

Study antidumping rules from China to understand situation:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...f/04-23379.pdf
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/mr/v8n4/27625.pdf
http://www.exceramaterials.com/MMC_F...NNL_Report.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l01pk8208607xt35/

 

I just installed inexpensive rotors (4) and pads (8) from r1concepts for $200. I plan to write reviews at
10,000
20,000
30,000
and 40,000 miles. If they last that long.

 

Without a scanning electron microscope and a serious lab, it difficult to just compare two different rotors..............you can weigh them accurately to the gram and compare, you can look inside at the vanes and workmanship. You can guess at which seems better. You can measure the solid vs air space vs solid ratios.

An on the car test would require 25 cars to be statiscally significant traveling over the exact same roads at the same time.

 

If its important to you, some have curved vane cooling while some have straight...

 

Thanks Q45tech for all of that fantastic information. Unfortunatley, I'm not sure much of it applies unless I have all three types of rotors present and do a side by side comparison.

 

Simple you study, become an expert, do physical research, or just trust some one who feeds his family by marketing a product to you.

A common thread is" Boy do my brand new tires [pads/rotor/wheels/brake fluid] work so better and are quieter than my old worn out damaged tires [pads/rotors/etc]."

UNTIL they too become used!