Materials Failure Analysis
ARA has the expertise and equipment to perform hardness testing, metallography, fractography, chemical analysis, stress analysis, and material property testing. ARA has evaluated corrosion issues, weld issues, fractured component issues, coating issues, degradation issues with metals/plastics, microstructural issues and many others. ARA’s equipment includes mounting/polishing equipment for microstructural evaluations, hardness testers, mechanical property testing devices, non-destructive testing equipment and an array of microscopes. ARA’s scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a variable pressure, large chamber SEM which allows for the examination of both metals and non-metals without sample coating. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) is performed using the silicon drift detector (SDD) on the SEM. EDS allows for chemical analysis on samples being analyzed in the SEM.
In addition to investigations related to material failures from corrosion, fatigue and overload, ARAI has a metallurgical lab capable of the following tasks:
- Metallographic examination of steel parts to determine heat treated condition
- Hardness tests to evaluate material properties
- Micro-hardness tests to evaluate weld quality
- Dye penetrant testing to check for cracks
- Electron microscopy of fracture surfaces
- Temperature measurement pertaining to thermostatic controls
- Bend test on metal
- Coating thicknesses of painted layers on metal parts
- Tensile properties of metal and plastic parts
- Microscopic analysis of magnesium alloy particles
- Iron impregnated magnesium powder
- Calcium carbonate spheres analysis
- Destructive and Non-Destructive testing
- Stereomicroscopy
- Use of strain gages to evaluate stress conditions
- Chemical analysis of corrosion product
- Compression testing
- Chemical analysis
- Measurement of operating speeds of equipment
- Acoustical analysis
- And much more.