Failure Analysis

A failure can be the result of a manufacturing defect, maintenance practices, operating parameters, or even design related. More importantly, identifying the root cause of the failure makes it possible to develop a deliberate plan for corrective action and avoid another failure in the future. At Stress Engineering Services, our engineers have the education, experience and tenacity to investigate the failure, find the causes and identify a solution.

Our focus in engineering failure analysis extends beyond the reasons. We extensively examine the operating parameters, component design, material, and environment, as well as considering the equipment’s condition and maintenance history to identify the mechanisms that caused the failure.

Our comprehensive failure analysis testing experience in identifying potential failure mechanisms is based on decades of experience evaluating material and component failures on a broad range of components, structures, and products including piping, pressure vessels, consumer products, cranes, wind turbines, electronic components, plastic products and medical devices.

We have an extensive background in a variety of disciplines/fields including material engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, polymer science, and packaging. In addition, we have vast experience with all types of materials including metals, plastics, glass, elastomers, and composites, as well as product design and nearly every manufacturing process.

This collective force of skills and knowledge, along with our broad testing capabilities and state-of-the-art laboratories, enables our engineers and scientists to provide complete, reliable, and timely results that can help prevent future failures.

Failure Analysis

Site Inspection

Failure investigations often begin in the field. In large-scale failures, it may be necessary to capture the physical location of the equipment and debris field without disturbing the scene.

Our experts use an extensive inventory of tools and techniques including photography, three-dimensional laser survey and structured white light scanning, to extract all possible information without disturbing evidence at the scene. In addition, we have portable metallurgical survey equipment to assess the material’s condition.

The scene must ultimately be disturbed, and components that are suspected of being associated with the initiation of failure are extracted and moved to a laboratory environment. We have state-of-the-art labs devoted to metallurgical and non-metallic failure investigations.

Our capabilities includes:

  • History of Component
  • Metallography
  • Visual Examination
  • SEM / EDS / XRD
  • Photographic Documentation
  • Chemical Analysis
  • Sample Selection
  • Mechanical Testing
  • Collect Deposits
  • Corrosion Testing
  • Non-Destructive Examination
  • Sectioning
  • FTIR / GCMS / TGA of Plastics
  • Fractography
  • Field Metallographic Replication
  • Viscosity and Melt Flow
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Contact Us

If you would like more information on Stress Engineering Services, please call us at 281.955.2900, or complete the following form and one of our representatives contact you shortly. For a complete listing of contact information, visit our Locations page.

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