TENNECO · a brake, taken apart in the browser

Explaining a brake system from a slide is a losing battle. The parts only make sense in relation to each other, and a static diagram cannot show how they fit together.

Tenneco needed to put the actual product in front of people: choose a mobility sector, rotate the brake, pull the pad apart, and read each layer in place.

• Three mobility sectors on the landing page: light vehicles, commercial vehicles, and rail. Choosing one loads a 3D vehicle and zooms into its brake.
• A real-time exploded view: the brake pad separates into its layers, from friction material to backing plate, and each part is clickable with its own explanation.
• A Payload CMS behind all of it, so the models, the brakes, the copy, and even the branding (logo, favicon, colours) are configurable without a code change.

Let the client reconfigure everything. A 3D showcase that needs a developer for every change dies after handoff. Driving the models, text, and branding from a CMS is what made it a product the client owns, not a one-off render.

Explode on demand, in real time. Pre-rendered exploded images cannot be inspected. Doing the explosion live is what lets someone actually take the pad apart and click into each layer.

Build around the part, not the camera. The point is learning what each component does, so every part is a first-class, selectable object with its own content.

Shipped and used at an expo as an interactive way to walk people through the braking product line, live at digital.tenneco.com. It proved real-time 3D as a genuine sales and explanation surface at a large industrial client.