Performance of an Electro-Mechanical Parking Brake (EMPB) System

A mechanical parking brake is one of the most important safety subsystems in a vehicle. Its main function is to hold a vehicle in position when parks on a flat or slope road. A typical problem of the mechanical parking brake system is that it requires a driver to apply sufficient or sometimes high pulling force to keep the vehicle stationary at any road slopes. Insufficient pulling force may cause the vehicle to move away or known as rollaway phenomenon. In order to overcome such an issue, an electro-mechanical parking brake (EMPB) is proposed and developed. The EMPB system is then tested using in-house parking brake test bench. It is found that the EMPB takes within 0.6s to fully engage and within 0.5s to disengage the system, respectively at 11.3 degrees of the road slope. Thus, current design of an EMPB system can prevent rollaway problem and also can be used as alternative replacement for the existing fully mechanical parking brake system.