The International Committee of Foundry Technical Associations has identified seven basic categories of casting defects: metallic projections, cavities, discontinuities, defective surfaces, incomplete casting, incorrect dimension, and inclusions or structural anomalies. This article presents some of the common defects in each of the seven categories in a table. It discusses common defects determined during the examination of samples of ductile cast iron in Elkem's research facility in Norway. The article reviews common defects, such as shrinkage cavities, blowholes, hydrogen pinholes, nitrogen defects, and abnormal graphite morphology, found in gray iron. It concludes with a discussion on surface defects in compacted graphite iron.

This article discusses the concepts of quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA), and clarifies the differences and similarities in the roles and responsibilities of QC and QA personnel. It describes the inspection procedures used to verify proper surface preparation and installation of the protective coating/lining system. Prior to beginning surface-preparation operations, many specifications will require a presurface-preparation inspection to verify the correction of fabrication defects and removal of surface contamination such as grease, oil, cutting compounds, lubricants, and chemical contaminants. When inspecting concrete prior to coating installation, three areas of concern exist: surface roughness, moisture content in concrete, and acidity/alkalinity of the surface. The article provides information on the industry standards for assessing surface cleanliness. It details postcoating application quality requirements, including measuring of dry-film thickness, assessing intercoat cleanliness, verifying minimum and maximum recoat intervals, performing holiday/pinhole detection, conducting cure/hardness testing, and assessing adhesion of the applied coating system.

X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) techniques are used to characterize samples in the form of loose powders or aggregates of finely divided material that readily diffract x-rays in specified patterns. This article provides an introduction to XRPD, beginning with a review of sensing devices, including pinhole/Laue cameras, Debye-Scherrer/Gandolfi cameras, Guinier cameras, glancing angle cameras, conventional diffractometers, thin film diffractometers, Guinier diffractometers, and micro diffractometers. The article then describes several quantitative measurement methods, such as lattice parameter, absorption diffraction, spiking, and direct comparison, explaining where each may be used. It also identifies potential sources of error in XRPD measurements.