The inspection of castings normally involves checking for shape and dimensions, coupled with aided and unaided visual inspection for external discontinuities and surface quality. This chapter discusses methods for determining surface quality, internal discontinuities, and dimensional inspection. Casting defects including porosity, oxide films, inclusions, hot tears, metal penetration, and surface defects are reviewed. Liquid penetrant inspection, magnetic particle inspection, eddy current inspection, radiographic inspection, ultrasonic inspection, and leak testing for castings are discussed. The chapter provides information on the procedures involved in the inspection of castings that are limited to visual and dimensional inspections, weight testing, and hardness testing. It also discusses the use of computer equipment in foundry inspection operations.

This chapter explains how to recognize decarburization and related defects. It includes images showing how decarburization appears in various steels, discusses stock removal practices, and describes common defects and flaws such as quench cracks and where they are typically found.

This chapter identifies the primary causes of service failures and discusses the types of defects from which they stem. It presents more than a dozen examples of failures attributed to such causes as design defects, material defects, and manufacturing or processing defects as well as assembly errors, abnormal operating conditions, and inadequate maintenance. It also describes the precise usage of terms such as defect, flaw, imperfection, and discontinuity.

Roll forming is a process in which flat strip or sheet material is progressively bent as it passes through a series of contoured rollers. This chapter describes the basic configuration and operating principles of a roll forming line and the cross-sectional profiles that can be achieved. It explains how to determine strip width and bending sequences and identifies the cause of common roll-forming defects. It also discusses the selection of roll materials and explains how software helps simplify the design of roll forming lines.

This chapter discusses some of the ways that the lessons learned from failures have benefitted society, leading to improved product designs, better materials, safer industrial processes, and more robust codes and standards. It also provides several examples of how the technology and procedures associated with aviation security have been upgraded in the wake of air disasters.

This chapter discusses the importance of failure analysis and the role it plays in a society driven by technological advancement. It explains why failure rates are highest in the early and later stages of the life of any product and shows the extent to which failure rates increase when products are subjected to an aggressive operating environment.

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 provides an overview of the various inspection methods used with metals and alloys, namely visual inspection, coordinate measuring machines, machine vision, hardness testing, tensile testing, chemical analysis, metallography, and nondestructive testing. The nondestructive testing methods discussed are liquid penetrant inspection, magnetic particle inspection, eddy current inspection, radiographic inspection, and ultrasonic testing.

A titanium alloy disc on the fourth stage of an aircraft engine compressor was found cracked in the course of a defect investigation. The disc had not yet reached the halfway point of its expected service life. The chapter explains how the crack was examined and provides relevant details about its location on the disc and various aspects of its appearance. It also explains how failure analysts concluded that the disc had been subjected to a fluctuating load of high magnitude and that the crack was the result of two fatigue cracks, originating from opposite sides of the diaphragm.

This chapter is a detailed account of various factors pertinent to the development and launch of a product. It begins by describing the five phases in the product launch process, namely product design and development, process design and development, product and process validation, product launch, and continuous improvement. This is followed by sections covering product-process flow diagrams and also the process elements considered for process failure mode and effects analysis. Some of the aspects covered by the engineering specifications to meet the product performance requirements are then reviewed. Details on product validation requirements and definitions of parameters related to the launch process are also provided. The chapter discusses the purpose of manufacturing control plan, along with an illustration of a manufacturing control plan outlined for a safety-critical suspension casting. It ends with an overview of the contents of a program launch manual.

This article discusses the steps in the primary processing of stainless steels: melting, refining, remelting, casting, and hot rolling. It provides information of the major categories of defects in hot rolled stainless steels, namely hot mill defects, inclusion-related defects, and hot ductility-related defects.

Machine vision is a means of simulating the image recognition and analysis capabilities of the human eye/brain system with electronic and electromechanical techniques. This chapter discusses four basic steps in the machine vision process, namely image formation, image preprocessing, image analysis, and image interpretation. Details of the processes involved, equipment used, and the factors to be considered are also presented. In addition, the applications of machine vision are discussed.

This chapter gives an overview of how steel castings may be effectively adapted to modern concurrent engineering processes. The chapter discusses computer aided design programs, solid modeling, solidification simulation programs, and rapid prototyping.

This chapter discusses the effect of composition on environmental resistance, machinability, and casting and forging, factors that are often considered when selecting a superalloy.

This chapter discusses the role of failure analysis in cases involving product liability, property damage, and personal injury litigation. It also explains how material science and technology shed light on criminal activities such as smuggling, counterfeiting, theft, and the willful destruction of property.

The complexity of semiconductor chips and their packages has continuously challenged the known methods to analyze them. With larger laminates and the inclusion of multiple stacked die, methods to analyze modern semiconductor products are being pushed toward their limits to support these 2.5D and 3D packages. This article focuses on these methods of fault isolation, non-destructive imaging, and destructive techniques through an iterative process for failure analysis of complex packages.