Lesson Learned

A: Chasing the wrong cause here risks a rushed pad material change and a slipped programme gate. Pad wear over a single test window removes microns of material; torque scales with effective radius and friction coefficient. Radius change is tiny, and μ drift over early wear is usually under a percent. A 3% shift points elsewhere, like temperature or caliper compliance, so you don't burn time on the wrong corrective action.

A: Missing this leads to accepting hardware that slowly walks out of spec across builds, then bites you at homologation. When a datum definition changes, the entire tolerance scheme referencing it changes meaning. Even if numbers look the same, the physical reference isn't, so trend data across revisions becomes misleading and lessons learned get corrupted.

A: Ignoring this can mean the fourth test finally fails and forces a design freeze breach. Embedment relaxation explains a monotonic drift without step changes and without ambient triggers. It matches repeated load cycles and settles slowly, unlike sensor zero shifts or operator scatter that would bounce around rather than march in one direction.

A: Acting as if the response is instant can push you into over‑correction and a failed repeat test. Moisture uptake and release take time, especially in polymers and composites. Waiting for the lag avoids chasing noise and preserves a clean lessons learned trail.