ABS: A Success Story

ABS: A Success Story

The ABS (antilock braking system) first brought to market by Bosch in 1978 prevents wheel lock during full braking. This ensures that the vehicle can still be steered and moved out of the way of unexpected obstacles.

“ABS substantially improves driving stability and usually shortens the brake path as well,” says Wolfgang Drees, member of the management board at Robert Bosch GmbH and head of its Chassis Systems division. Today, more than two thirds of all new vehicles manufactured worldwide are equipped with ABS.

Bosch filed a patent application for an “Apparatus for preventing lock-braking of the wheels of a motor vehicle” as early as 1936.

In 1978 Bosch was the world’s first automotive supplier to present an ABS system ready for mass production. By October that year, the ABS 2 was available on the market for the first time in S-Class cars from Mercedes-Benz. Integration in the BMW 7 series followed in December.

Since the components of the system had been cut to 140, its micro-electronics now displayed the reliability needed in cars.

In the following years, the main aim was to make the system smaller, lighter and more effective. In 1989, Bosch engineers successfully installed a control device built on the hybrid construction principle directly on the hydraulic aggregate. Complex connections were no longer required, and this generation of the ABS 2E was also far lighter.

In 1993 Bosch developers built the generation 5.0 with new magnetic valves. It was followed by the 5.3 and 5.7 versions. Additional functions were added, e.g. electronic brake force metering which replaced the mechanical brake force proportioning valve on the rear axle.

The current ABS generation is the ABS 8 introduced by Bosch in 2001. This is a modular system which permits the ABS, TCS and ESP® braking control systems to be implemented as an integrated product family. This has resulted in optimal use of synergies in production and development.

These technological advances have led to higher performance, less components and lower weight of the ABS. Whereas the ABS 2 (1978) weighed 6.3 kg, the ABS 8.0 of 2003 weighs a mere 1.6 kg.

Since production-line manufacturing of ABS took off in 1978, Bosch has delivered 100 million ABS systems worldwide.