HYBRID PERMANENT MAGNET-ELECTROMAGNETIC EDDY CURRENT BRAKE WITH INTEGRATED FRICTION BRAKE

A magnetic brake assembly for use with a wheel rim is described. The brake assembly includes a rotor secured to rotate with the rim and a stator (21) secured to be rotationally stationary relative to the rotor. One of the rotor and stator has an electrically conductive body and the other of the rotor and stator has a magnetic array including a plurality of magnets (333) configured to generate a magnetic flux. An actuator is connected to at least one of the electrically conductive body and magnet array to selectively effect a brake mode and a non-brake mode. In the brake mode, the magnet array induces eddy currents in the electrically conductive body to generate a magnetic braking force when the rim rotates above a threshold speed and in the non-brake mode, the induced eddy currents cause a negligible or no magnetic braking force as the rim rotates above the threshold speed.