what is Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and why is it necessary ~Engineering explained

in #technology6 years ago

Hello steemians today I am explaining what is Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) what is it and why is it necessary, I am giving a basic explanation not going in deep technicality so everyone can understand well.

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Sometimes on applying brakes too hard or applying brakes on slippery surfaces can cause the wheels to lock and slide. Due to locking of wheels you lose steering control and the stopping distance will be longer as car slides on the surface due to its momentum.


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The Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) prevents the lock-down or slipping of wheels doesn’t matter how hardly you have applied the brakes or how much slippery the road surface is, thus stopping distance reduces and steering always remains in your control.

Now let’s see its technical specification and working

It mainly consists of

A brake pedal:

pedal which driver pushes to stop the car.

A master cylinder:

technically it’s a device which is use to convert non-hydraulic pressure to hydraulic pressure, in simple language when you push the brake pedal it converts the mechanical force to hydraulic pressure.

A wheel speed sensor:

A sensor to measure the wheel speed.

The electronic control unit (ECU):

The electronic control unit is like a computer it controls many important functions of the car engine such as proper air and fuel ratio, correct ignition timing, etc. In ABS readings from wheel speed sensors are constantly sent to the controller and if any wheel looses traction then controller immediately limits the braking force.

The hydraulic control unit also called hydraulic modulator:

It controls the solenoid valves though which hydraulic fluid leads to each of the wheels.

Now let’s see how ABS works


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The wheel speed sensor has a toothed rotor that rotates with each wheel and a pickup sensor which measures the speed of the rotor.
When the wheel rotates the pickup sensor starts sending voltage pulse signal to the electronic control unit. When the brakes are applied the wheel speed of rotation changes this sends a new signal to ECU.

Readings from wheel speed sensors are constantly sent to ECU and if ECU detects any condition of locking of wheels or any wheel loosing traction it further sends an electric voltage pulse signal to the hydraulic control unit.

The hydraulic control unit is commonly a three channel size control unit and has three solenoid valves to control brake pressure and prevent the locking or sliding of wheels. These valves are installed in series with master cylinder and the brake circuit. In this three one solenoid valve controls each of the front wheels and the second solenoid valve is used to control both rear wheels.

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After reading all above informations you now know how important is ABS for our cars it can save your life life and others too.

If you like the post please upvote and comment, it motivates me to write more useful contents.

Thank you for reading

See you soon!!

Till then

Stay safe and keep steeming

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I always thought that the ABS is purely mechanical (at least in older cars). Very interessting to read.
Maybe you could write something about the ESP next? Thanks.

thanks for reading and giving such awesome suggestion too will surely write about ESP in my next post : )

It is something that we use everyday that not a lot of people know how it works. Nice and educational post, keep it up.

Thanks for reading, glad you liked it.

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