Bugatti's 3D-printed brake caliper ready for the road

Bugatti showed off the 3D-printed titanium brake caliper in action. — AFP Relaxnews

Nearly a year after Bugatti announced that it was working on a 3D-printed brake caliper, it released a video of the finished product in action.

Bugatti has been working on creating a 3D-printed brake caliper for its high-speed models like the Divo or Chiron since January, and just last week it posted a video of the titanium part in action.

The caption reads, "The world's largest 3D printed titanium pressure functional component ever produced on one of the most powerful brake test benches on the market! This is what it looks like when Bugatti prepares its first printed titanium brake caliper for series production," though it's difficult to believe that the team tests under such dramatic lighting conditions.

The four-and-a-half-minute-long clip features the caliper undergoing a test simulating a vehicle braking from a speed of 249 mph, while the test disc reaches 1,877°F (1,025°C) – a temperature that created quite the light show of sparks and glowing metal.

According to Bugatti, it takes 45 hours to print a single titanium-based caliper consisting of 2,213 layers of material. Of course, this kind of technology is not compatible with mass production, so such a specially-created part will be reserved for the manufacturer's multi-million-dollar models which are manufactured in extremely limited amounts.

Expect to see this brake caliper make its way into luxury models this coming year. – AFP Relaxnews