This chapter reviews the tests and procedures used for measuring hardness of plastics and elastomers. The conventional testing methods (Rockwell, Vickers, Brinell, and Knoop) used for testing of metals are based on the idea that hardness represents the resistance against permanent plastic deformation of the material to be tested. However, elastic deformation must be considered in hardness measurement of elastomers. This chapter discusses the equipment and processes involved in the durometer (Shore) test, the International Rubber Hardness Degree test, and other specialized tests. It presents the criteria that can be used to select a suitable hardness testing method for elastomers or plastics and describes processes involved in specimen preparation and equipment calibration.

Contaminants can be a cause of numerous types of system failures. There are numerous techniques for confirming contaminant presence. When the presence of a contaminant is suspected, the failure analysis team must find and eliminate the contaminant source, which can be obvious or quite subtle. This chapter summarizes a few commonly encountered contaminant sources to stimulate the reader's thinking about potential contaminant sources. A case study of titanium component washing at Litton Lasers is presented to illustrate how the presence of contaminants leads to a system failure.

This chapter discusses the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of nondestructive hardness testing methods for metals, including electromagnetic impulse testing, photothermal testing, scratch hardness testing, and ultrasonic contact impedance testing. It also discusses the use of ultrasound to determine the depth of hardening in a metal or alloy. The chapter reviews methods used to check and calibrate hardness testing machines and indenters and the use of hardness reference blocks for verification and calibration of test machines. It also addresses conversion of hardness values determined by one method to equivalent values for a different method.

This chapter reviews the current technology and examines force application systems, force measurement, strain measurement, important instrument considerations, gripping of test specimens, test diagnostics, and the use of computers for gathering and reducing data. The influence of the machine stiffness on the test results is also described, along with a general assessment of test accuracy, precision, and repeatability of modern equipment. The chapter discusses various types of testing machines and their operations. Emphasis is placed on strain-sensing equipment. The chapter briefly describes load condition factors, such as strain rate, machine rigidity, and various testing modes by load control, speed control, strain control, and strain-rate control. It provides a description of environmental chambers for testing and discusses the processes involved in the force verification of universal testing machines. Specimen geometries and standard tensile tests are also described.

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.

Critical process variables must be controlled to ensure uniform and repeatable heat-treating results. This chapter covers the subject of controlling the heat-treating process. All heat-treating equipment utilizes various sensors, timers, and other components to monitor and control the process utilizing various control methods. The chapter focuses on temperature control and measurement, including a discussion about thermocouples and devices for measuring thermal and electrical conductivity.

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.

Wrought tubular products are nondestructively inspected chiefly by eddy current techniques (including the magnetic flux leakage technique) and by ultrasonic techniques. The methods discussed in this chapter include eddy current inspection, flux leakage inspection, ultrasonic inspection, magnetic particle inspection, liquid penetrant inspection, and radiographic inspection of resistance welded tubular products, seamless steel tubular products, and nonferrous tubular products. This chapter discusses the fundamental factors that should be considered in selecting a nondestructive inspection method and in selecting from among the commercially available inspection equipment. The factors covered are product characteristics, nature of the flaws, extraneous variables, rate of inspection, end effect, mill versus laboratory inspection, specification requirements, equipment costs, and operating costs.

This chapter details low-temperature test procedures and equipment. It discusses the role temperature plays in the properties of typical engineering materials. The effect that lowering the temperature of a solid has on the mechanical properties of a material is summarized for three principal groups of engineering materials: metals, ceramics, and polymers (including fiber-reinforced polymers). The chapter describes the factors that influence the selection of tensile testing procedures for low-temperature evaluation, along with a comparison of tensile and compression tests. It covers the parameters and standards related to low-temperature tensile testing. The chapter discusses the factors involved in controlling test temperature. Finally, the chapter discusses the safety issues concerning the use of cooled methanol, liquid-nitrogen, and liquid helium.

The temperature and atmosphere conditions must be precisely controlled in order to achieve the desired metallurgical results during heat treating operations. In order to ensure the repeatability of operation, a heat treating system must have the necessary sensors, timers, and variable (temperature, atmosphere, etc.) controllers to hold the process within prescribed or specified limits. This chapter discusses temperature and atmosphere sensors used in a heat treating system. The temperature sensors covered are contact and noncontact types. The atmosphere sensors covered are oxygen probe, dew point, and infrared. The chapter concludes with an overview of the development of integrated control systems.

This chapter discusses the factors that influence temperature in forging operations and presents equations that can be used to predict and control it. The discussion covers heat generation and transfer, the effect of metal flow, temperature measurement, testing methods, and the influence of equipment-related parameters such as press speed, contact time, and tooling geometries.

Any forming process that converts stored energy to plastic deformation in less than a few milliseconds is considered a high-velocity or impulse forming process. This chapter discusses the operating principles, equipment, and applications of the most common high-rate forming processes, including high-velocity hydroforming, high-velocity mechanical forming, and electromagnetic or energy-based forming.

This chapter provides guidelines for conducting metallographic evaluations and offers suggestions on how to effectively report the results. It explains how the approach depends on the objective of the evaluation, which is usually to measure a structural feature, test a hypothesis, or investigate structure-related effects. The chapter addresses each case, tailoring its guidelines and suggestions accordingly.

This chapter describes important aspects of the interrelationship between the workpiece and the inductor coil, an understanding of which is essential for achieving an efficient soldering process and a solder joint with the desired performance and reliability. It also discusses induction soldering machine operation parameters, including temperature measurement and control sensors. The chapter illustrates the equipment used in a fully automated induction heating system. Fully automated soldering systems include temperature monitoring devices to control the temperature-time profile, the movement of workpieces, the supply of solder filler metal and flux, and the provision of shielding gas in the solder joint area.

This article presents a simple cost/pricing system that is reasonably accurate and could easily be recalculated if the yearly cost of any of the basic cost components change. Using the example of a commercial heat treating facility, the operational details are categorized as atmosphere processes, induction processes, aluminum processes, high-heat processes, and secondary processes. For the purpose of calculating the heat treatment processing cost per hour and the selling price for a piece of equipment, the costs are separated into direct costs, allocated costs, capitalized cost, and general and administrative costs. The article discusses the techniques involved in allocating costs to the group of equipment, and presents a description on the cost analysis of endothermic gas.

Casting quality and consistency need to be carefully controlled. This chapter discusses the procedures that describe the process and product quality controls. In addition, it provides information on quality assurance programs.

This chapter discusses the operating mechanism, applications, advantages, and limitations of Brinell hardness testing, Rockwell hardness testing, Vickers hardness testing, Scleroscope hardness testing, and microhardness testing. In addition, the general precautions and selection criteria to be considered are described and details of equipment setup provided.

Sand and metallic charge materials are two essential and heavy raw materials that are needed for molding and casting. This chapter focuses on planning and provision for storage and handling of the raw materials needed for casting manufacturing. The major raw materials used for molding and casting are metallic charge materials and nonmetallic materials. The chapter also presents the advantages, limitations, and applications of drum or rotary dryers (also known as rotary kiln dryers) and fluidized bed dryers (also known as vibration fluidized bed dryers).

This chapter discusses the selection, use, and integration of methods to control process variables in induction heating, including control of workpiece and processing temperature and materials handling systems. The discussion of temperature control includes a review of proportional controllers and heat-regulating devices. Integration of control functions is illustrated with examples related to heating of steel slabs, surface hardening of steel parts, vacuum induction melting for casting operations, and process optimization for electric-demand control. Distributed control within larger manufacturing systems is discussed. The chapter also covers nondestructive techniques for process control and methods for process simulation.