ZF Makes 100 Million Electric Park Brakes

There are production milestones, and then there are really production milestones, like this one: In 2002 ZF pioneered the electric park brake (EPB). Last week the company announced that it has become the world’s first company to produce 100 million of them.

The system provides a variety of benefits. Because it is lighter, it helps provide more fuel economy. EPB can be actuated via a button rather than a lever. It is fully integrated with the braking system, so this electromechanical system provides features including dynamic actuation, brake pad wear sensing, and reduced degradation compared with mechanical-only systems.

ZF sees that the EPB can contribute to brake-by-wire systems as it becomes more fully integrated with other vehicular systems. (It has developed what it calls the EPBi system, which doesn’t need its own electronic control unit as it is integrated into the electronic stability control system.)

Manfred Meyer, senior vice president, Braking Engineering for ZF, said, “As we move toward ever higher levels of advanced safety and automated driving, braking systems will play a key role in helping to meet regulations and enabling new functions. At ZF we are making traditional mechanical systems intelligent through electronic control that will allow for higher levels of integration with other onboard systems and a greater degree of vehicle control and the electric park brake will have greater applicability than ever before.”

Chances are it won’t take another 17 years to get to the second 100 million.