Electromechanical Brake Booster Buffer Element Blockage Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electromechanical brake boosters lack effective mechanisms to detect and prevent damage from blockages or restraints on the brake actuation element, leading to potential injury and system damage during operation.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a buffer element, such as a compression or tension spring, between the input rod and valve body to increase differential travel and detect blockages, allowing for autonomous braking and reducing the risk of damage by enabling a 'soft' contact with interfering objects, along with an internal electronic evaluation system to output control signals for warning and safety mode adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the brake actuation element is actuated with high force to ensure reliable braking, then the braking effectiveness is improved, but the risk of jamming objects and causing damage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a buffer element positioned between the input rod and valve body that can deform to absorb excess force. This cushioning mechanism activates before damage can occur, allowing the system to handle high actuation forces during normal braking while preventing jamming damage when objects are present in the brake actuation path.
2Measurement precision
If the differential travel between valve body and input rod is increased to improve detection capability, then the blockage detection sensitivity is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state of the buffer element from rigid to deformable, allowing it to compress and extend based on operational conditions. During normal operation, the buffer element maintains a specific pre-compression state that establishes a baseline differential travel. When blockage occurs, the differential travel deviates from this baseline, enabling detection without complex additional mechanisms.
3Power
If a rigid connection between input rod and valve body is used to ensure force transmission, then the force transmission efficiency is improved, but the capability to detect blockages and prevent damage is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer element serves as an intermediary component between the input rod and valve body. It maintains continuous mechanical contact to ensure force transmission during normal braking operation, while its deformable nature allows it to absorb shock and enable detection of abnormal conditions such as blockages, thus preventing damage.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If the buffer element is made from elastic material to enable deformation and energy absorption, then the damage prevention capability is improved, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The buffer element is designed as a consumable component with a defined service life. It can be manufactured from standard elastic materials with常规 tolerances rather than high-precision specifications. When the buffer element shows signs of wear or degradation, it is replaced rather than repaired, simplifying manufacturing requirements while maintaining damage prevention capability throughout its service life.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables prompt detection and prevention of blockages, preventing damage to the braking system components by allowing for autonomous braking and ensuring a 'soft' contact with objects, while reducing the risk of injury and system damage through enhanced differential travel detection and control signals.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one buffer element encompasses at least one compression element that is disposed at at least one abutment surface, contactable by the input rod, of the valve body and/or at at least one abutment surface, contactable by the valve body, of the input rod
Implementation Method 2
The at least one compression element can be constituted from at least one elastic material
Implementation Method 3
The at least one buffer element can likewise encompass at least one confined or encapsulated tension spring element that is retained between the input rod and the valve body
Implementation Method 4
As an alternative or an addition thereto, the at least one buffer element can also encompass at least one confined or encapsulated compression spring element that is retained between the input rod and the valve body
Data Source
AI summary
An electromechanical brake booster is provided for a braking system of a vehicle, having a valve body and an input rod, the valve body, to which at a displacement motion in a brake application direction has been imparted, being displaceable up to a differential travel equal to a limit differential travel with reference to the input rod, and then a co-displacement motion in the brake application direction being impartable to the input rod if the co-displacement motion is acted against at most by a retention force below a predefined threshold value, and at least one buffer element being disposed on the input rod and/or on the valve body in such a way that if a retention force above the predefined threshold value acts against the co-displacement motion, the differential travel is increasable above the limit differential travel by way of a deformation of the at least one buffer element.