Development of Brake Booster Design for Electric City Cars

Mekara Electric Vehicle 02 is a type of city car that converts conventional vehicles into electric vehicles at the Universitas Indonesia. The brake booster component system still uses a type of vacuum brake booster. The brake booster is a component in the brake system that reduces the force on the driver’s pedal in the vehicle braking process. The vacuum brake booster requires a vacuum generated by the engine intake manifold. In an electric car, there is no vacuum in the intake manifold because the engine is changed by an electric motor. The use of a vacuum brake booster in electric cars requires an additional component of a vacuum pump. The use of a vacuum pump on a vehicle battery requires electricity consumption of 3.9 Watt hours. In this study, we aim to design a new electric brake booster mechanism as a replacement for the vacuum brake booster mechanism. We used our proposed method to design an electric brake booster component and make a prototype. The prototype was tested using a rig test simulation. The electric brake amplifier applies the magnetic force generated by the solenoid and pulls the lever bar connected to the brake master. The brake pedal that is stepped on by the driver activates the flow of electricity on the solenoid and activates a magnetic pull force so that the driver’s force in pressing the brake pedal will be assisted by an electric brake booster mechanism. Electric brake boosters can reduce electricity consumption by 28.2%.