Brake system

In a car, there are multiple things that need to work together to ensure a safe and comfortable ride.
Some of these systems are more obvious as the difference they make is visible, while some don’t get
the same love. We will discuss both and how such systems allow us too safely and comfortably ride.

Brakes are one of the most critical components of a car. We should preach to the choir when we say
driving a car without brakes invites certain death. With just the press of a pedal or the pulling of a
lever, the car comes to a halt. How do brakes work, though? How many types are there, what is the
history behind them and what is the future of it? We will discuss everything as we go deeper into the
world of brakes.

History of Brakes
It’s been over a hundred years since the first brakes made a debut. Made of wood and controlled by a
lever, these brakes were used to slow down carriages or cars with steel-rimmed wheels. That was a
long time ago, though. And with cars back then reaching maximum speeds of 30-35 km/hr, these
brakes were good. As technology advanced and cars kept on getting faster, new brakes were also
developed to keep up with the speed of the car and the ever-increasing demand for cars on road. This
led to multiple different types of brakes, from simple drum brakes to highly advanced automatic
brakes.

Principle
This will be a common point in every braking system. The principle used by every brake is friction.
Opposing any force is something friction does, but we increase it using brakes. Friction converts
kinetic energy into heat energy, thus effectively bringing the car to a stop. Every time of brake will
use friction to stop the car, one way or another. Brakes introduce a stationary element and put it in
contact with a moving one, thus causing friction.

Types of Automotive Brakes

The brakes that we will cover are as follows.

 Mechanical drum brakes

 Disc brakes
One of the oldest mechanical brakes, drum brakes, have been around for a while. Even though they
are less technologically advanced than other brakes on the list, they are still used in cars.

History
The first drum brakes were present in a car made by May Bach in 1990, while the working principle
was patented later in 1902 by Louis Renault. Asbestos was used in the first patented drum brake for
heat dissipation, while levers, rods and cables were sued to operate the brake mechanically. They had
a lot of issues but were still used due to being the most superior option back then.

When Jaguar introduced three cars at Le Mans equipped with disc brakes, drum brakes were in
trouble. The three cars won Le Mans due to superior braking capabilities, which started the switch
from drum brakes to disc brakes in passenger cars.

Even though newer brakes came and made drum brakes almost obsolete it still finds uses in hand
brakes as a disc brake cannot hold a parked car in position. Let’s dive further into drum brakes.
The construction of mechanical drum brakes will be covered in parts as there are a lot of
components, and it’s better to tackle it in this way

Back Plate
It’s the base of the other components and increases the rigidity of everything else. It is made of
strong material as it must withstand the punishment from road debris. As the name suggests, its a
place in the back of the system.

Brake Drum

Made of cast iron as it is more heat resistant, the main job of the drum brake is to act as the mediator
between the brake lining and the wheels. It rotates with the wheel. It is situated on the wheel hub and
acts as the buffer between the brake and the wheel.

Wheel Cylinder
One is present in every brake; it is the hydraulic piston controlling the movement of brake shoes. It is
located on the top of the brake assembly.

Brake Shoe
Brake shoes are the reason that a car can stop. Controlled by the wheel cylinder, these brake shoes
are on the sides of the brake assembly.

Friction Lining

These friction linings are on top of the brake shoe. They are made up of material that has high heat
resistance, high resistance to wear and tear and a high coefficient of friction.

Now that we know how a brake drum is assembled, we can move on to how a brake drum works.

Working
When the brake is applied by the user, hydraulic fluid is pushed into the brake line, and this fluid
travels to the wheel cylinder. The wheel cylinder has two pistons that push outwards when the brake
fluid enters the cylinder. This, in turn, moves the brake show outwards and towards the brake drum.
The brake shoe’s outer side has friction linings that then rub against the brake drum. The friction
causes the wheel to slow down as the brake drum is directly attached to the wheel. Due to friction,
kinetic energy is converted into heat energy and this causes the car to come to a halt.

That’s it for the working of the drum brake. As we said earlier, it might not be high-tech gear, but it
still gets the job done. Now it is only limited to handbrakes, but there is a reason as to why, which we
will discuss in the pros and cons section, which coincidently happens to be right below this.

Advantages
1. They are easier to maintain.
Remember the rule of thumb. The fewer the number of working parts, the easier it is to maintain
something. Being an old piece of technology, drum brakes have the advantage of being easy to
maintain. With the right tools, it’s possible to do some part of replacing yourself, but just to be
safe, leave the work to the experts!
2. They are cheap.
Like being easier to maintain, having fewer parts and using basic physics without expanding on
anything means the production and manufacturing costs are really low, making it easier to mass-
produce.
3. Compatibility
Drum brakes are compatible with other brakes, like a disc brakes. It doesn’t mean you can use
both brakes on the same wheel. Rather use one on the front wheels and the other on the rear. A
normal combination is a disc brake on the front wheels and a Drum brake on the rear wheels.

Disadvantages
 It can collect unwanted materials.
Drum brakes have an enclosed design. This means they are almost like a tight container, and it is
not easy to escape. It is possible, however, to enter it. Water, dirt, brake gunk and many other
things can enter the Drum brake and stay there as being enclosed, and it won’t be able to come
out of it.
 Heat Build
another issue with the enclosed design, it’s not easy for air to flow smoothly into the assembly.
This causes heat to build up quickly, which results in our next issue.
 Easy Wear and Tear
The wear and tear issue is caused by the failure to dissipate heat effectively. This is not the sole
reason, though. The brake lining faces a lot of friction which causes it to start wearing fast.
This concludes the Drum brakes. It’s only gonna get better from this point forward. Now towards the
second brake system.

Disc Brakes

These are brake types that use calipers to slow down a car with friction. Disc brakes are famous and
useful and are seen on almost every vehicle nowadays.

History of Disc Brakes

The development of disc brakes started with in the 1890s. However, due to lack of good metals that
could be used, Frederick Willian Lanchester patented a caliper type disc brake in 1902 that used
copper. The roads at that time, however, didn’t allow copper to be used as copper is a soft metal
would wear down really quickly. This made the system useless. After multiple people working on
various types of the first patented system, the breakthrough came in 1953.
CONSTRUCTION OF DISC BRAKES

Similar to drum brakes, there are a lot of parts in a disc brake and it makes more sense to tackle these
parts separately. The construction will cover the floating type of disc brakes and the second type, and
the fixed type will be discussed

Rotor
The rotor is the part that is attached directly to the wheel. This rotor rotates with the wheel hence the
name. The rotor acts as the connection between the wheel and the brakes.

Pads
Mounted on the brake system, the pads act as friction lining. They are close to the rotor facing
outwards and made of durable material with a high friction coefficient.

Caliper
The entire housing of the brake system is called the caliper. It is mounted on the axle and has no
direct contact with the rotor until the brake is applied, allowing full and easy movement of the
wheels.

Pistons
Inside the caliper’s piston, also called the pot, is the direct connection to the caliper and the brake
fluid.

Master Cylinder
The main force behind the braking system. It is placed quite far from the braking system and uses
tubes to push hydraulic fluids towards the caliper.

The construction doesn’t end here, as there is important reasoning for where the brake calipers are
placed. You might have seen the calipers yourself. They are usually red and are visible on the
wheels. Sometimes they are close to the front and sometimes to the back. We will discuss the logic
behind every positioning and why they are used. This part needs its subheading as it’s a big topic and
quite necessary to learn. It might not sound much, but there are many reasons for their perfect
positioning depending on the car and the main use of that car.
Position of Brake Calipers
Imagine a wheel with 4 different locations. The side towards the car will be called the interior, the
top will be called the top, and the bottom will be the bottom. While the front tire’s remaining side
will be called outer, and the rear tires remaining side will be called rear. Now let’s discuss the
positioning.

1. Weight Distribution
In a car built for high performance, weight distribution is a necessary attribute. The perfect weight
distribution means more control over the car at high speeds. To achieve this, the calipers need to
be towards the car. This makes the car have a good Moment Of Inertia. A good MOI means the
car has a good balance point, and it won’t be easy for the car to roll over.

2. Suspension
The size of the suspension also affects the location of the calipers. Something like a double-
wishbone suspension will make it impossible to place the caliper at the top or bottom part of the
wheels. This leaves only two positions empty, which will be decided depending on the type of car
and which position will help it more.

3. Aerodynamics
Brakes use friction to convert kinetic energy into heat energy. This causes the brakes to overheat.
The higher the temperature of a machine, the easier it can get worn down. Thus brakes need a
flow of air to keep them cool. Some cars have vents in the front to push the air towards the tires.
In such a case, the callipers will be placed in front of the wheels to allow for the air to push into
them directly.

4. The Purpose Of The Vehicle

We talked about it a bit in the weight distribution part. The positioning also depends on what the
sue for the car is. Something like an off roader will have the caliper placed on top to prevent mud
and water from entering the slotted discs. A sports car made for the tracks will have them towards
the interior to provide a better MOI. With a car for day-to-day driving, it will be placed in front of
the tire to reduce the cost of routing the air from the front towards the back, thus cutting costs.

5. Cosmetic
Calipers can also be placed to appease the eye. Some cars may already have an MOI good enough
to manage the calipers to be in any position. In such a case, the position which makes the car look
better will be selected. Most calipers that are positioned to look good are placed towards the
interior of the car anyways, thus giving both a good look and helping with the Moment Of Inertia.

6. Cost Cutting
Positioning can also help cut costs. A brake calipers towards the interior of the car is good for
MOI but is more costly as it requires routing of the air from the front of the car towards the back,
which increases complexity and thus causes more money to be spent on it. This is not ideal for
cars that are more budget-friendly. The good thing is that these budget-friendly cars are not
expected to be high-performing cars anyways, which allows them to use the calipers in front,
sacrificing a boost in MOI.

Working
When the brake pedal is pressed down, the working of a disc brake begins. It starts with the pressure
from pressing the brake to the master cylinder. The master cylinder then converts this force into
hydraulic force by moving fluid along the tubes present in the cylinder. This fluid reaches the pistons
and pushes them along. This causes the piston and the entire caliper assembly to move inward. This
inward movement causes the entire assembly to clamp down on the rotor, which is directly attached
to the wheel axle, thus rotating along with the wheel. Stopping the rotor thus means stopping the
wheels, thus bringing the car to a halt.

There is another type of disc brake called the fixed disc brake. The above one that we discussed is a
floating type. Let’s talk about fixed disc brakes.

Fixed Disc Brakes

There is only one major difference between floating disc brakes and fixed disc brakes. In fixed disc
brakes, the brake caliper doesn’t move. Instead, the side of the caliper which should move has
pistons. A fixed disc brake has four disc brakes, unlike a floating disc brake with one. This gives it
advantages over the floating type, which we will discuss briefly.

Floating VS Fixed
The major difference is, as we have already discussed, the number of pistons. Having more pistons
and the structure staying ‘fixed’ gives the fixed disc brakes more stability over floating. This also
makes it so that the fixed disc brake effect is evenly applied to the entire rotor, unlike floating disc
brakes.

Advantages of Disc Brakes

1. More Power
Disc brakes have a really high stopping power compared to something like a drum brake which
helps in slowing down a high-speed car or helping a car stop as fast as possible.
2. No Heat
Disc brakes are made in such a way that they get constant airflow. Due to being slotted and not a
closed structure like drum brakes, they dissipate heat fairly easily and thus don’t overheat. The
worst case scenario of overheating can cause tire blowouts which can mortally injure.
3. No Water Retention
Due to not being an enclosed chamber, the disc brake doesn’t store water in them, and it flows
right off. This is completely different from a drum brake which can hold water and cause really
fast wear and tear.
4. Safer during Hard Braking
Unlike drum brakes that can lock up during hard braking, disc brakes don’t lock up. Hard braking
is when a lot of force is applied on the brake pedal to make the vehicle stop as fast as possible.
This can cause the drum brake to lock up, which in turn removes any control from the driver’s
hand, making the car skid. Disc brakes don’t suffer from this. However, both brakes use an Anti-
Lock Brake System to prevent this.

Disadvantages
 Money
Disc brakes cost much more than a drum brake would. This is due to being more advanced and
more complex.

 Tough Maintenance
Being a complex piece of hardware disc brake requires more work to maintain and more skill to
repair. This, in turn, means they are costly to get repaired. The complexity comes from the
number of parts involved, which increases the amount of work needed to fix the system.
 Air Troubles
If any amount of air enters the master cylinder or the tubes with the hydraulic fluid, the brake will
instantly fail. This is a serious issue and thus needs utmost care during activities like bleeding the
brake fluid and other maintenance.