Brake apparatus and method
AssigneeD-Brake, LLC
InventorJohn Deconti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosed apparatus relates to a liquid cooled brake apparatus comprising: a housing, a brake cooling pump mounted to said housing, a braking force actuator mounted to said housing, said actuator being driven by a first driven member; and a braking force applicator in operable communication with said braking force actuator and a brake rotor, the rotor rotationally fixed to said first or a second driven member. The disclosed method relates to a method of retarding a driven member comprising: driving a braking force actuator with a first driven member, actuating a braking force applicator; and retarding the rotation of a rotor rotationally fixed to said first or a second driven member.
Claims20
A liquid cooled brake apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- a brake cooling pump mounted to said housing;
- one or more driven members supported by the housing;
- a braking force actuator mounted to said housing, said braking force actuator being driven by the one or more driven members, the braking force actuator being configured and disposed to pressurize fluid;
- a brake rotor rotationally fixed relative to the one or more driven members;
- a braking force applicator in operable communication with said braking force actuator and the brake rotor;
- and
- a control system in operable communication with the braking force actuator and the braking force applicator, the control system including a solenoid configured and disposed to control fluid pressure transfer between the braking force actuator and the braking force applicator in order to control speed of the brake rotor.
A method of retarding a driven member comprising:
- driving a braking force actuator with one or more driven members;
- actuating a braking force applicator;
- controlling fluid pressure transfer between the braking force actuator and the braking force applicator with a solenoid;
- retarding the rotation of a rotor rotationally fixed to the one or more driven members through operation of the braking force applicator;
- internally cooling the rotor with a cooling fluid;
- pumping the cooling fluid in response to rotation of the rotor;
- and preventing the pumping of cooling fluid, by repositioning a stator assembly in response to a decrease in fluid pressure from the braking force actuator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.