Bugatti’s titanium brake caliper puts metal printing under load

What happened

Bugatti presented a 3D-printed titanium brake caliper in January 2018, developed with Laser Zentrum Nord in Hamburg. The eight-piston component was part of a research effort into manufacturing complex, highly loaded parts.

Titanium offered a difficult manufacturing challenge and an opportunity to rethink the component’s structure. The project explored how metal printing could produce shapes that were challenging to manufacture through conventional routes.

Bugatti described trials for series production as a next step. The reveal was a development milestone, rather than evidence of a completed fleet-wide production rollout.