Manufacturing

Written by: Trevor Bendik

The design process heavily considered manufacturing, such that custom components could be made using 3-axis CNC milling in as few setups as possible. The brake pedal design consisted of 3 custom aluminum components, the Pedal, Mount, and Rail [Figure 1-2]. This page will be split into three major sections by component, respectively.

Fig. 1. 2025-2026 Brake pedal design and exploded view with labeled components

Fig. 2. 2025-2026 Brake pedal custom aluminum components

Pedal

Material: 7075-T651 [Note: T651 is NOT the same as T6, they have different mechanical properties]

Based on geometry, the part needed a minimum of three setups using 3-axis CNC milling: OP10 (top side), OP20 (bottom side), and OP30 (pedal pad holes). OP20 (bottom side) required custom 'soft-jaws' due to not having 2 parallel flat surfaces for adequate workpiece clamping and positioning. OP30 (pedal pad holes) also required soft jaws to ensure that the pedal pad interface was perpendicular to the drill.

OP10

The goal of the first operation is to machine as much as possible. For that reason, a stock block was chosen such that the entire pedal outer counter and one half of the internal webbing could be machined in one go, while leaving adequate clamping area, and at least 0.100" of clearance between the machining bottom height and the top of the vise jaws.

Stock Dimensions: 10.90" X 3.60" X 1.36"

The list of OP10 tooling passes can be seen in Figure 3.

OP20

OP30

OP40

Mount

Material: 7075-T651 [Note: T651 is NOT the same as T6, they have different mechanical properties]

 

 

 

Rail

Material: 7075-T651 [Note: T651 is NOT the same as T6, they have different mechanical properties]