Brembo is the first choice

Brembo is the first choice

There is a dusty, metallic smell in the air. The machines all around work in harmony, the noise level is just bearable without hearing protection. The factory halls in Curno, an hour's drive northeast of Milan, will only be started up after the shift change; we are not yet talking about 100 percent capacity. We're visiting Brembo, the brightest name in the field of brake manufacturers. Today Brembo produces brake discs, brake pads and brake calipers for cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles from the D segment onwards. There are also electronic parking brakes, brake pumps and motorcycle rims (see page 38). It all started with a passion for racing. The company name Brembo is a combination of the surnames of the two founders, Italo Breda and Emilio Bombassei. Founded in 1961, the first car brake discs were developed in 1964 and the first motorcycle brake discs in 1972. In 1975 he entered Formula 1 – the premier class. The first customer: Ferrari.

FAMILY OWNERSHIP AS A TRUMP

Today Brembo produces in 15 countries worldwide, including the USA, Brazil, Italy, Poland, China, India and Japan. Matteo Rampazzo, OE Key Account Manager Product Planning and Market Analysis, explains: "Brembo invests five percent of its sales annually in research and development. Ten percent of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide make up the research and development team. Progress, innovation and global production are the fundamental success factors." At lunch, however, Rampazzo reveals two other reasons why Brembo has become the world market leader: "Brembo is still over 50 percent owned by the Bombassei family. It is run sustainably and long-term like a family business. No external top managers are hired who will improve the balance sheet in three years, say goodbye with a big bonus and leave behind a field of rubble. And: Brembo takes care of the entire production of its products itself. The entire manufacturing knowledge, from A to Z, is included “That’s a huge competitive advantage for us.”

WIDE RANGE

Brembo made its name as a Formula 1 supplier. Porsche took notice and relied on the Italian brake supplier as early as the 1980s. The step into the original equipment market was taken. And well-known customers should follow. The completely pre-assembled brake system including steering knuckle is supplied for all Ferraris today. Bentley, Land Rover, Jaguar, Renault, Alpine, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Audi, BMW, Ford are also all Brembo customers. Or to put it another way: There are hardly any manufacturers in the high-performance segment that do not use Brembo brakes. The reason: quality and performance. “Our racing DNA has brought us to where we are today,” explains Luca Battistella, Brembo Performance Car Retail Market Manager. "In Formula 1 you develop at the limit. You explore limits and can make the best possible use of the experience gained to produce road-legal products."

CRAZY QUALITY CONTROL

As we stroll through the factory halls, we pass a box of brake calipers for the BMWM models. Each saddle is brand new and looks stunning. “It’s all crap,” says Battistella. Why? “They didn’t pass quality control.” We get a saddle out of the box. The head-sized monoblock aluminum brake caliper has a minimal paint shading of approximately four millimeters. “There, you see, crap.” To be honest: If the lighting had been just slightly worse in the hall or outside in daylight, no one would have noticed this flaw. Certainly not installed. The other “crap pliers” in the box also have hardly any noticeable flaws. Nevertheless, none of it is delivered to BMW. "We are Brembo. We always have to deliver the very best quality," says Battistella proudly. Every performance brake is checked several times during the manufacturing process. The slightest imperfections are enough to stomp the product back. That’s called zero tolerance today. There are two dozen brake calipers in the box. The selling price per saddle at a BMW dealer is several hundred euros.

MANUFACTURING MASTER

The production stations are short and employees are involved in almost every station. Either for machine or quality control, or you have to do it yourself. Overall, the proportion of manual work is very high. Every Brembo product receives a production code. This means that every work step, from the blank to the finished product, can be tracked very precisely and is documented digitally. For OE parts, some test samples are taken from each batch. For performance parts (aftermarket, racing), every part is tested. Matteo Rampazzo proudly explains that every production hall worldwide is constructed in exactly the same way and the same production steps are implemented. You can't tell from the inside where you are in the world. This is remarkable because Brembo claims to enjoy a competitive advantage: no one else can insert the brake pistons into one-piece monoblock aluminum brake calipers without additional holes. The advantage of monoblock production: Brembo mills the entire saddle out of a single block of cast material. This means that the brake caliper is stiffer, lighter and has fewer components, making it less prone to errors. Part of the monoblock production is patented and protected worldwide.

CARBON CERAMIC

Brembo's racing DNA is particularly evident in super sports cars: Hardly any Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini or McLaren can do without carbon ceramic brake discs. The reason: Even high-end sports cars are becoming heavier, faster and more powerful. In order to bring the extremely expensive luxury racers to a safe stop, you need real Formula 1 braking technology. Brembo is the only manufacturer in the world to produce carbon ceramic brake discs for series vehicles. The basis for this is a joint venture with the German SGL Group. Carbon ceramic brake discs are not only significantly lighter than conventional steel brake discs, they are also more temperature-resistant. In Curno we were able to gain exclusive insights into production. The starting point is palm-sized, flexible carbon segments that have a similar structure to textile fibers and also feel like them. The individual segments are chemically and mechanically connected to one another over a nine-month process. We weren't allowed to find out more about the top secret manufacturing process. The Formula 1 cars use pure full carbon brake discs with carbon brake pads in milled monoblock brake calipers. Carbon ceramic discs with conventional metal brake pads are used in the luxury cars for the road.