5.A coating is applied to all surfaces of the CCM brake rotor to provide oxidation protection.

6.The center or 'hat' section is attached to the CCM rotor with stainless-steel screw, nut, and anti-rattle hardware. Some axial and radial movement (float) between the metal hat and CCM rotor must be provided because the two components have drastically different temperature-expansion rates. Anti-rattle springs allow this movement while preventing noise and vibration. After the retention nuts are properly torqued, each fastener is marked with paint to indicate that that step has been completed. No retorquing is necessary during the life of the rotor.

7.During a quality-control inspection, the finished brake rotor's lateral run out and other pertinent dimensions are verified. Various pieces of information-such as batch number to provide a means of tracking the rotor in the future, minimum acceptable mass, and minimum rotor thickness-are printed on the metal hat. Anodized aluminum is generally used unless a drum-type parking brake is integral with the mounting hat, in which case that component is made of stainless steel.

8.Upon completion of all manufacturing and inspection steps, each rotor is wrapped and packed for shipment to the end user. Start to finish, the CCM manufacturing process takes a full week.

A few other CCM-related details that may enhance your appreciation of these ultra-high-performance brake components:

During an aggressive application of the brakes, the rotor temperature may rise to 1000-degrees C (1800-degrees F) before stabilizing in the 500-750-degrees C (900-1400-degrees F) range. The host vehicle must be carefully developed to route vast amounts of heat away from the spinning CCM rotors.

CCM has 85 percent higher thermal capacity than iron and more than twice the thermal radiance. But since it has less than one-third of iron's density and only 40-percent of iron's conductivity, the heat accumulation in a CCM rotor is far lower, a boon to braking efficiency. In essence, CCM heats up and cools off much faster than iron. Thermal and fluid mechanical analyses are used to configure a CCM rotor's radial and lateral vent channels.

Brembo supplied the first ever CCM brakes for the Ferrari Enzo in 2002. Several thousand CCM rotors are currently manufactured per year.

Brembo has a monopoly in the CCM business. In 2009, it joined forces with SGL, the German-based manufacturer that supplies Porsche and others with CCM brake rotors made using processes similar to Brembo's.

The brakes currently used by Formula One competitors are similar but different. F1 rotors are instead a carbon-carbon design using carbon-fibers bound together in a carbon matrix without the silicon material found in CCM brakes.

CCM rotors provide higher heat (fade) resistance, greater stopping torques, and significantly longer life than cast iron brake rotors. Their friction coefficient doesn't change much with temperature. They are also about half the weight of iron rotors, a characteristic with three-fold benefits: Acceleration is enhanced because of CCM's lower rotating inertia and because the car's total mass is reduced. The lighter unsprung weight with CCM rotors yields handling gains.

CCM rotors do not corrode and their normal service life is nearly 100,000 miles according to Brembo. In racing use-such as Ferrari Challenge-their useful life is shorter but still more than a 1000 miles of flat-out running.

Roughly 60-percent of the technology used to develop Brembo's CCM brakes during the past 15 years came from the highest levels of motorsports.

Brembo builds monobloc (one piece) brake calipers in aluminum to provide the desired stiffness with minimum weight. These aluminum castings are anodized for corrosion protection then coated with epoxy paint resistant to brake fluid and friction-material dust.

Because their brake rotors are smaller but still prominently visible and because they generally dissipate heat more rapidly, motorcycle brake rotors are made of stainless steel versus the cast iron preferred for non-CCM car applications.

CCM is obviously one of the most remarkable materials ever developed for automotive use. Manufacturing advancements should lower the cost of these highly effective braking systems to bring them within the reach of more high-performance models in the future.

Take one step forward to accept your (virtual) diploma because you are now a Brembo CCM brake rotor expert.