Marathon's New Facility

40,000 sq. ft. World Class Friction Manufacturing

In 2014, Marathon Brake Systems opened a new 40,000 square foot friction manufacturing facility. This state-of-the-art ISO9000 and ISO14000 certified plant produces the complete family of Marathon friction materials and complements Marathon's other two friction manufacturing plants. The friction materials produced in our new facility all meet or exceed FMVSS #121 and RP628 test standards. Some Marathon products have ECE certification for sale or use in Europe. We supply brake linings from this facility to our aftermarket customers around the world and to our OE customers in North America.


The new Marathon facility features a world class process that incorporates several new manufacturing technologies. Among the processes utilized in the new plant are a geothermal cooling system to maintain optimum and consistent humidity and temperature, an automated raw material weighing system to ensure batch-to-batch consistency and a proprietary process for transfer of raw material mix into the hot curing presses.

One of the more significant quality control improvements are the use of a continuous curing process for better swell and growth control of the friction material. This continuous curing delivers a consistent temperature throughout the process eliminating the hot zones common in traditional friction curing and improving overall product quality. The plant also features an automated ultra-sound scanning system to examine 100% of our friction for possible delamination.


Marathon's research and development team plays an integral role in the overall quality control system. Incoming raw materials undergo rigorous testing including ash (%), loss of ignition, oil content, acetone extraction, screen analysis, moisture (%), specific gravity, bulk density, phenolic resin curing and flow tests. Finished product testing includes specific gravity, hardness, fast, dimensional stability, chase, transverse rupture strength, internal rupture strength, compression strain and dynamometer cycling. Marathon friction materials are tested to and comply with an extensive list of global standards.

In 2018 another significant investment will result in the addition of a new production line within our plant. Goals for these ongoing investments in manufacturing facilities and processes are not only the highest quality standards for our products, but efficiency that allows us to compete globally… in fact, we're very proud that our world class Marathon manufacturing process goes from raw material to finished brake lining in a matter of hours, as opposed to other manufacturers whose process takes days!