【正文】
ds and rotors are worn, generating wear particles. Some of these particles are deposited on the brake hardware, and others bee airborne. Furthermore, to ensure robust brake performance, some brake systems may require the pads to frequently be in low pressure contact with the rotor. This dragging may remove any rust layer, which may build standing parked overnight in a wet environment, from the rotor and keep the contact surfaces clean. However, the resulting drag torque increases the fuel consumption and generates wear particles, because the pads are still in contact with the rotor after the rust layer has been removed. It is therefore desirable to reduce the dragging without affecting the performance of the brakes. When measuring airborne brake particles in fi eld tests, it can be diffi cult to distinguish them from other traffi cgenerated aerosols. Therefore, it may be preferable to use laboratory tests that allow control of the cleanliness of the surrounding air. Although several test stands have been built to study wear and friction at the padtorotor interface, few studies12,13 have focused on wear particles. In a laboratory test stand, the cleanliness of the surrounding air can be controlled, enabling more accurate study of airborne brake wear particles. With this in mind, a laboratory ponent test stand has been designed to measure the number and size of airborne