Types of braking assistance technologies (part 2)
Today we’ll be continuing our look at the various features that you should be aware of when looking at a new car, and today we’ll further look at types of braking assistance technologies.
Electronic brakeforce distribution
ABS kicks in when the wheels are at the point of slipping while the electronic brakeforce distribution is meant to prevent that from happening.
When it comes to stops both hard and gentle, not all wheels will require the same amount of braking force since each wheel does a different amount of work.
For instance, considering the most common braking scenario: the straight line stop. In this case the car’s weight shifts forward so the front wheels have more grip and as a result are less likely to lock up. In vehicles without EBD there’s a regulator valve in the hydraulic system that ensures the front wheels receive more braking power. In this situation the proportion of braking force distributed to the front and the rear is fixed regardless of circumstances.
This is a very acceptable solution, but it isn’t an ideal situation because many other variables can affect a car’s weight balance. For instance, during cornering the weight will be distributed to the side of the car further away from corner, so this means that the inside wheels are far more likely to slip under braking.
These are the types of situations where EBD comes into play, since it works as an extension of the anti-lock braking system. It is means to monitor each wheel’s speed and acceleration/deceleration in order to calculate how much load it is bearing. The system works by adjusting the valves in the braking system’s hydraulic lines so that the EBD can distribute more braking force to the wheels that are carrying more of the load and less to those doing less of the work.
