Putting products to the test in the lab

Fluid resilience is critical to proper brake operation, thus even brake fluid gets put through its paces in Meritor's Cwmbran lab.

All different types of brake fluid are tested via a variety of machines in the Cwmbran lab.

What a brake looks like once its been through the "corrosion chamber.".

Corrosion chambers subject brakes and related components to extreme salt baths.

Climate chambers generate extreme temperatures and humidity levels.

These testing "rigs" subject brakes to a lifetime's worth of stress and strain within just a few weeks.

Lifetime testing rig for a drum brake.

What a brake looks like after it's been through the "slurry" test, designed to re-create extreme off-road conditions.

Engineers prep brake components for testing. If a brake design doesn't succeed here, it goes back to the drawing board.

A wheel end and disc brake testing rig. FYI in the background stands Chad Mitts, GM for Meritor's North American brake business.

Dynamometer No. 5; such machines re-create the total "kinetic energy" produced by a commercial vehicle -- and apply that energy to brakes, wheel ends, even complete axles within their chambers.