This chapter opens with a discussion of the classification of rod and tube extrusion processes. The standard processes involve hot working (extrusion at temperatures above room temperature), but some specialized cold working processes are also used for rod and tube extrusion. The next section reviews principles, variations, thermal conditions, axial load calculation, material flow, and applications of direct extrusion and indirect extrusion, with examples provided for extrusion of aluminum and copper alloys. Next, the chapter focuses on the process principles, advantages, and applications of conventional hydrostatic extrusion and thick film processes. This is followed by sections providing information on the special extrusion processes, namely conform process and cable sheathing. The chapter ends with a discussion on direct and indirect tube extrusion.

This chapter provides an overview of the basic principles and historic development of metal extrusion processes. It starts by illustrating the two major process categories: direct extrusion and indirect extrusion. It then briefly defines hydrostatic extrusion and the conform process. The history coverage addresses early patents for extrusion of lead at the turn of the 17th century up through the major process innovations in the 20th century.

A product pedigree describes its design and how it was built and shows that it was built in accordance with the drawings and other documentation defining the product configuration. Evaluating the pedigree of a failed product can help to rule in or rule out hypothesized failure causes. This chapter describes various areas that can be examined by the failure analysis team to assess the pedigree of the failed system. If the failure analysis team suspects product pedigree anomalies it should confirm conformance through independent means.

The aim of every extrusion plant is the efficient production of competitive products that meet the appropriate quality requirements. This chapter discusses the processes involved in the selection and introduction of a quality management system, along with its application, advantages, and disadvantages. It describes the process chain for order processing within the quality circle and provides information on product liability legal issues. In addition, the chapter discusses the processes involved in quality control, along with its organization, responsibilities, audits, and testing.

This chapter provides an introduction to powder processing of binders and polymers. It sets the context for the remainder of the book by providing an overview of the topics discussed in the subsequent chapters and by providing introduction to powder-binder fabrication and customization of feedstock and describing the challenges in component production. The chapter also summarizes alphabetically a few key concepts in powder-binder processing.

In some cases, the failure analysis team finds that all components meet their requirements, the system was properly assembled, and it was not operated or tested in an out-of-specification manner, yet it still failed. When this occurs, the only conclusion the failure analysis team can reach is that it missed something in its analysis or that the design is defective. This chapter focuses on the latter possibility by discussing the various factors that a failure analysis team should consider to identify the causes of defects in system design. These include requirements identification and verification, circuit performance, mechanical failures, materials compatibility, and environmental factors. Examples that illustrate the value of design analysis are also presented.

At the conclusion of a systems failure analysis, the people involved should have a much more in-depth understanding of how the system is supposed to work. The analysis should help understand shortfalls in the design, production, testing, and use of the system. The failure analysis team will have identified other potential failure causes and actions required to preclude future failures. This is valuable knowledge, and it should not be set aside or ignored when the failure analysis team concludes its activities. This chapter is a brief account of the creation of failure analysis libraries, of process guidelines based on previous failure analyses, and of troubleshooting and repair guidelines. Also provided is a listing of the various steps that should be included in a failure analysis procedure.

This chapter targets areas that determine if a change occurred and if the change induced the failure: change or what's different analysis. It describes the different sources of changes that induce process deficiencies: design, process, test and inspection, environmental, supplier lot, aging, and supplier changes. The chapter presents an example of a cluster bomb failure to explain how the failure analysis team found and corrected the failure cause.

This report describes the failure of a gas turbine in a combined-cycle power plant and the examination and tests that were conducted to determine the cause. Based on microstructural analysis, hardness measurements, and tensile tests, the failure was attributed to inadequate clearances in the seal land region between two stages in the compressor section of the rotor. The report also recommends changes to remediate the problem.

Two filtration components installed on a developmental aircraft cracked during pressure impulse testing. Both parts were made from an aluminum alloy, solutionized and aged, and cracked due to fatigue. In both cases, the crack initiated at a transition region on an inner surface and progressed circumferentially outward. Based on these observations and the results of SEM fractography and microstructural analysis, the fatigue cracking can be traced to insufficient fillet radius at the transition zone.

This appendix provides information on temper designations for strain-hardened aluminum, heat treatable aluminum alloys, and annealed aluminum products.

This chapter reviews failure aspects of structural ferrous powder metallurgy (PM) parts, which form the bulk of the PM industry. The focus is on conventional PM technology of parts in the density range of 6 to 7.2 g/cc. The chapter briefly introduces the processing steps that are essential to understanding failure analysis of PM parts. This is followed by a section on case hardening of PM parts. The methods used for analyzing the failures are then discussed. Some case studies are given that illustrate different failures and the methods of prevention of these failures.

This chapter focuses on what can cause a system to fail and addresses the challenge in approaching a system failure. It then examines the steps involved in the four-step problem-solving process: defining the problem, identifying all potential failure causes and evaluating the likelihood of each, identifying the potential solutions, and identifying the best solution. The chapter concludes by describing the responsibilities of a failure analysis team.

This chapter describes the processes, applications, and limitations of forming and shaping various materials. It discusses bulk forming, hot working, cold working, sheet forming, and polymer and powder processing.

This chapter focuses on engineering drawings for casting production, providing information on machining and casting drawings and machining and tooling references.

This chapter presents a step-by-step approach for analyzing the causes of nonconforming workpieces and determining potential solutions. The discussion covers a wide range of issues, including testing errors, latent and process-related defects, examination and testing techniques, defect characterization, and effective remedial actions.

This chapter surveys both basic quality and basic reliability concepts as an introduction to the failure analysis professional. It begins with a section describing the distinction between quality and reliability and moves on to provide an overview of the concept of experiment design along with an example. The chapter then discusses the purposes of reliability engineering and introduces four basic statistical distribution functions useful in reliability engineering, namely normal, lognormal, exponential, and Weibull. It also provides information on three fundamental acceleration models used by reliability engineers: Arrhenius, Eyring, and power law models. The chapter concludes with information on failure rates and mechanisms and the two techniques for uncovering reliability issues, namely burn-in and outlier screening.