Seen this? Electronic Wedge Brake Brings Drive-by-Wire to New Level

[MELLO*SOS]

Just saw this little article on some new electronic braking system & thought some of you might be interested. BTW the InventorSpot Blog is a great invention related blog if you're into that kind of stuff, all kinds of crazy new shit gets posted up there.

Originally Posted by FTFA on InventorSpot

The Siemens EWB uses motors to move a wedged plate along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. This plate moves rollers that fit into the similarly-wedged back plate of the brake pad. As the wedges tighten against each other, the force of the vehicle’s forward momentum actually presses the pad tightly against the brake disc, rather than hydraulic pressure. This system achieves vastly improved stopping power over traditional hydraulic systems with the additional benefit of significant weight and power savings.

Now, with the elimination of an entire hydraulic system, think of what vehicle designers can eliminate. Brake vacuum boosters, master cylinders, slave cylinders, anti-lock braking modules, brake fluid reservoirs, brake lines, pistons, brake fluid; the list goes on and on. Siemens claims that the EWB system will free up 22 liters in the engine bay, giving designers more room for other components.

[axiomatik]

cool, but what happens in reverse?

[aznpoopy]

very cool

also:

Antilock braking will be handled by the main computer rather than a complex separate module.

ecu controlled ABS. future tuners may intercept the signal to dial in abs characteristics.

you may even be able to dial in the braking characteristics you want, rather than those the engineers think you should have.

DIY bias adjustment

The brake-by-wire system will be designed to provide feedback via the pedal using a simple torque sensor on the brake, and probably a motor to press the medal against the driver’s foot.

simulated feedback

[status:one]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[Drift101]

so what happens if the chip fails or the software is f*cked?
instant death?

good stuff none the less....

[BustedS13]

Originally Posted by Drift101

so what happens if the chip fails or the software is f*cked?
instant death?

good stuff none the less....

that's when you start dropping gears and praying.

[cdlong]

Originally Posted by axiomatik

cool, but what happens in reverse?

the same thing. the wedge presses the pad against the rotor. it just replaces the hydraulic system, the pad/rotor interface is the same.

cool idea, but cars are required to have a redundent system (i'm not sure the parking brake is enough), for the reason drift101 said. they said system weight goes down, but i bet unsprung weight goes up a lot.