Patent ID: 8827378

Claim:
A brake apparatus comprising: an operation member; a brake cylinder; an electric braking-force control device for electrically controlling braking force in accordance with an operation amount or force of said operation member; a master cylinder for producing pressure of a brake fluid; a transmission unit for operatively connecting said operation member to said master cylinder; a block member for blocking communication of the brake fluid between said master cylinder and said brake cylinder; and a simulator for accumulating the brake fluid supplied from the master cylinder while said block member is in an opened state; wherein said transmission unit is a mechanism capable of varying a ratio between an output amount of an output member thereof connected to said master cylinder and the operation amount of said operation member; wherein in a normal operation, with the communication of the brake fluid between the master cylinder and the brake cylinder blocked by the block member, the braking force of the brake cylinder is controlled, via the electric braking-force control device, in accordance with the operation amount or force of the operation member in a former-half operation amount region of the operation amount of the operation member, in which the amount of brake fluid supplied from the master cylinder to the simulator is controlled via the transmission unit not to become greater than an accumulation amount of brake fluid in the simulator; wherein, in an abnormal operation of the electric braking-force control device, with the block member placed in an opened state, the fluid pressure of the master cylinder is supplied directly to the brake cylinder; and wherein in a latter-half operation amount region of the operation amount of said operation member, which corresponds to a region in which the amount of braking fluid supplied from the master cylinder exceeds the accumulation amount of the braking fluid in the simulator, a ratio of the operation amount of said operation member to the output amount of the output member is controlled, via said transmission unit, to increase in response to increase of the operation amount of said operation member.