failure analysis

a leading provider of failure analysis services

failure analysis

failure analysis service2023-01-20T16:07:15+00:00

ourĀ failure analysis services

When products or materials fail in-service it is critical to accurately and quickly identify and assess the cause of the failure, enabling process to be put in place to mitigate or preventing future recurrences. This is at the heart of failure analysis.

Failures can happen for a host of reasons including material fatigue, molecular degradation, oxidation, brittle fracture or by how the product was original design and/or its use during service. Impact Solutions have a wide range of in-house equipment allowing fast turnaround times for failure analysis testing both on and off-site.

With our experience experience in material and product design coupled with our top-class material characterisation facilities Impact Solutions can investigate the cause of failures and provide solutions for failure reduction in future. Our track record has helped companies save millions by quickly getting answers to their plastic failures in order that they put in place corrective actions as quickly as possible. We work with our clients to evaluate the failure and propose solutions.

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failure analysis case studies: oil & gas

impactĀ was approached by a manufacturer of measuring equipment that operated in the corrosive environment down hole in the oil & gas environment. Ā The environment encountered by their component is aggressive with temperatures upĀ to 300Ā°F (149Ā°C) and 10,000 psi are considered standard environment. Other characteristics that increase the level of complexity of an operation are the presence of H2S, CO2 and debris that may be generated by the formation. Also, in the case of H2S and debris, the levels of complexity may be associated with the type of test process used.

Normally a ridged metal protector is used to protect the cable but in this application this was not suitable as the measuring devise needed to be removed after a period

failure analysis case studies: safety helmets

Some plastics are attacked by the sunā€™s rays resulting in the whitening or the bleaching of colour, components will therefore be produced with a UV stabiliser to protect the product.

We were approached by a leading manufacturer of construction products who on selling their product into Texas started to experience catastrophic failure on certain products within just a few months. It was very evident that the product was undergoing UV degradation which was complicated by the fact that there was a number of different base HDPE used and a range of different colours which all effect the UV absorption by the product.

impactĀ looked at:

The Polymer and additive package used as there was a number of colours, masterbatches and grades of HDPE used, some of the lighters colours had started to fail first as expected but it was apparent that it was not consistent.

Production control: There was no change control in place for swapping both the grade of HDPE and the additive packages with many decisions purely being taken on price, this failure was further compounded by the lack of records and batch control which is good practice in ISO 9001.

Product QC: It was apparent that there was no consideration taken for the eventual use of the product with the UV exposure in Texas being 10 times normally experienced in Norther Europe ie a product with a design life of 10 years, could because of UV exposure alone have this reduced to a single year.

HowĀ impactĀ approached the failure was initially to confirm that the experienced product failures were as a result of UV exposure, we then underwent a material selection exercise to identify the best combination of HDPE/additives verses price and performance.Ā impactĀ then provided polymer training for key personnel and supported the manufacture to revise their in house QC process.

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