Patent ID: 7228945

Claim:
A brake system to control movement of a rotatable component, the brake system comprising: a controller; a brake assembly; a communications medium which conveys communications between the controller and the brake assembly, the brake assembly including: a mounting plate configured to reside in a fixed position relative to the rotatable component, pressure members disposed in a substantially coplanar manner relative to the mounting plate, and electric actuators mounted to the mounting plate, the electric actuators being configured to selectively move the pressure members relative to the mounting plate (i) from a non-braking position to a braking position in response to a first command received from the controller through the communications medium, and (ii) from the braking position to the non-braking position in response to a second command received from the controller through the communications medium, wherein the rotatable component defines a planar braking surface, wherein the electric actuators are configured to move the pressure members linearly (i) in a first direction toward the planar braking surface in response to the first command, and (ii) in a second direction away from the planar braking surface in response to the second command, and wherein the first and second directions are substantially perpendicular to the planar braking surface; and linkage elements which couple the electric actuators to the pressure members, the electric actuators being configured to (i) pull the linkage elements toward the mounting plate when moving the pressure members in the first direction toward the planar braking surface, and (ii) push the linkage elements away from the mounting plate when moving the pressure members in the second direction away from the planar braking surface.