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Failure Analysis

Failure analysis is the science and technology of understanding how materials and products fail. Whenever a component no longer performs its intended function, it is essential to understand how and why it fails. Any type of failure is undesirable in nature. When an alloy fails, it can have serious consequences, both in terms of safety and economic costs. More worrying is that the failure of the alloy may threaten life. For example, a catastrophic failure of a high-speed passenger train in Germany in 1998 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. This was attributed to a damaged wheel caused by metal fatigue.

Failure analysis is typically performed by experienced technical experts to examine certain materials of a product component for potential failures, or to diagnose the cause of a failure after it has occurred. The purpose of failure analysis is to identify the primary causes leading to failure, develop methods to prevent future failure occurrences and modify design and manufacturing procedures to develop products or systems that are robust to potential failures ^[1]. Alfa Chemistry is a specialized analytical service provider and our team of experts is equipped with the latest analytical techniques and tools to provide a comprehensive range of alloy failure analysis services.

Our Analysis Projects

Our analysis projects include, but are not limited to the following.

Our Analysis Methods

Alfa Chemistry's cutting-edge analysis laboratory is equipped with a specialized technical platform to provide you with alloy failure analysis services. Our analysis methods include, but are not limited to the following.

• Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

SEM is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electrons. SEM has become an important tool for failure analysis of alloys. Using high-energy electron beams, SEM allows us to obtain high-resolution and micro-scale three-dimensional images of the surface of failed alloy parts or components. These images help us to study the fracture topography and morphological characteristics of failed alloy parts or components, so as to determine the failure mode and root cause.

• SEM/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (EDS)

EDS is an analytical technique used for the elemental analysis or chemical characterization of a sample. When SEM is combined with the micro-analysis capabilities offered by EDS, SEM/EDS is capable of imaging and chemically analyzing features as small as one-fifty millionths of an inch in diameter. By combining SEM and EDS data, we can study both morphological characterization and compositional information, which may be very useful in failure analysis.

• Others

In addition to the above two analysis technologies, our failure analysis laboratory also offers Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) technologies.

The Industries We Serve

Alfa Chemistry provides first-class failure analysis services for the following industries:

Reference

1. Y.E. El Mogahzy. Textile product design analysis and modeling. Engineering Textiles. 2009: 112-161.