Caliper and support assembly, and method

A caliper and support assembly for a disc brake, wherein an axial direction, either coinciding with or parallel to a rotation axis of a disc of the disc brake, a radial direction, orthogonal to the axial direction, a circumferential direction, orthogonal to both the axial direction and the radial direction, and a tangential direction, orthogonal both to the axial direction and to the radial direction are defined;

• said caliper and support assembly comprising a brake caliper comprising a caliper body adapted to straddle an associable disc of the disc brake, and a supporting structure connected to the caliper body, wherein
• said supporting structure comprises:
• a first fixing portion and a second fixing portion adapted to connect integrally with a vehicle, and
• a connecting portion adapted to connect the caliper body to the first fixing portion at least along a direction parallel to said axial direction or along a direction parallel to said radial direction, wherein the connecting portion allows a free movement of the caliper body relative to the supporting structure along a predetermined direction, wherein said predetermined direction is incident to said axial direction and to said radial direction or to directions parallel thereto, wherein
• said caliper and support assembly further comprises a constraining element configured to connect the caliper body to the second fixing portion along said predetermined direction preventing the free movement of the caliper body, wherein
• during a braking action the constraining element elastically deforms according to at least said predetermined direction, determining a displacement of the caliper body relative to the supporting structure in at least said predetermined direction;
• and wherein
• said caliper and support assembly further comprises at least one detecting device that either directly or indirectly detects the displacement of the caliper body relative to the supporting structure along at least said predetermined direction.

A method for detecting a displacement of a caliper body relative to a supporting structure of a caliper and support assembly during a braking action, the method comprising:

• connecting the caliper body to a first fixing portion of the supporting structure with a connecting portion of the supporting structure to allow the displacement of the caliper body along a predetermined direction;
• constraining the caliper body to a second fixing portion of the supporting structure with a constraining element elastically deformable at least along said predetermined direction to allow the displacement of the caliper body during the braking action and to prevent the displacement of the caliper body in absence of the braking action;
• detecting the displacement of the caliper body during the braking action directly, by
• identifying a caliper body portion facing a supporting structure portion, the supporting structure portion being one of the first fixing portion, the second fixing portion and the connecting portion, and
• measuring a distance between the caliper body portion and the supporting structure portion during the braking action, or indirectly, by
• measuring a change in a length of the constraining element at least along said predetermined direction.