This chapter provides a detailed discussion on five occasions that require written accounts. They are field report, transmittal report with failed unit, laboratory notes of the analyst, failure analysis report, and letter of transmittal of the report to the customer.

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

Ferritic nitrocarburizing accomplishes surface treatment of a part in the ferrite region of the iron-carbon equilibrium diagram. This chapter presents the history and process benefits of ferritic nitrocarburizing.

This chapter provides a discussion of nitriding furnace equipment and control systems. The discussion covers the essential design criteria of the furnace, types of nitriding furnaces, insulation for the reduction of furnace heat losses, and factors influencing furnace configuration and design. It also covers the processes involved in the construction and maintenance of retorts, methods for sealing a retort to prevent ammonia leaks, and safety precautions to be taken while using ammonia. Further, the chapter provides information on the factors for choosing a heating medium and discusses the processes involved in controlling temperature, gas dissociation, oxygen probes, and nitriding sensors.

This chapter describes some common pitfalls encountered in failure investigations and provides guidance to help engineers recognize processes and “quick fixes” that companies often try to substitute for failure analysis. It discusses three important skills and characteristics that a professional engineer must improve to conduct an effective and successful failure investigation, namely technical skills, communication skills, and technical integrity. The chapter also provides information on the additional basic tools available for failure investigation and root cause determination: the Kepner-Tregoe structured problem-solving method, PROACT software for root cause analysis developed by the Reliability Center, Inc., and other processes and methods developed by the Failsafe Network, Inc., and Shainin LLC.

Beryllium-related lung diseases were first reported in the 1930s, several years after the emergence of beryllium metals in manufactured products. Since then, there have been numerous studies around the world and continued refinement of recommendations and safety standards. This chapter provides a summary of the studies that have been conducted along with the findings. It discusses the effects of acute and chronic exposure, toxicity levels, potential sources and risks, treatment, and protective and preventive measures.

This chapter concentrates almost exclusively on inspection techniques related to pressure vessels and pipework. The discussion covers the general aspects associated with inspection and the key factors relevant to it. In addition, the chapter addresses processes involved in data collection and management, namely data acquisition, reporting, trending, reviewing, and auditing. Capabilities and limitations of in-service inspection techniques are discussed in the Appendix to this chapter.

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.

In dynamic hardness tests, the test force is applied to the defined indenter in an accelerated way (with a high application rate). Dynamic test methods relate hardness to the elastic response of a material, whereas the classical static indentation tests determine hardness in terms of plastic behavior. This chapter describes the most important and widespread dynamic hardness testing methods. These tests fall into two categories: methods in which the deformation is measured and methods in which the energy is measured. Methods that measure deformation include the Poldi hammer method, the shearing force method, the Baumann hammer method, and the Dynatest method. Methods that measure energy include the Shore method, the Leeb method, and the Nitronic method. The chapter concludes with a discussion of applications of dynamic hardness testing.

This chapter discusses the maintenance needs of major components in induction heat-treating systems, including power supplies, heat stations, capacitors, high-frequency output stages, induction coils, water systems, quench systems, and fixturing.

This chapter describes the various features of the metallurgical microscope. Key concepts are defined such as resolving power, the virtual image, bright- and dark-field illumination, numerical aperture, focal length, image contrast, depth of field, and spherical and chromatic aberration. Metallurgical microscope features such as apochromatic objectives, hyperplane oculars, vertical illuminators, counting reticles, widefield oculars, polarization filters, field diaphragms, interferometers, and tungsten-halogen lamps are explained. The optical system, nosepiece, types of objectives (the lens assembly close to the specimen) and eyepieces, and components of the illumination system are all explained. The last part of this chapter describes special procedures involved in using and calibrating the metallurgical microscope.

Irradiation-assisted stress-corrosion cracking (IASCC) has been a topic of engineering interest since it was first reported in the 1960s, having been observed in stainless steel cladding on light water reactor fuel elements. This chapter summarizes the results of decades of investigation, showing that IASCC can essentially be defined as the intergranular cracking of austenitic alloys in high-temperature water, where both the material and its environment have been altered by radiation. Of the many interactions that can occur when metals and water are exposed to radiation, the international consensus is that the three with the greatest impact on crack growth rates are the formation of material defects, radiation-induced segregation, and chemical reactions that increase the corrosion potential of water. The chapter discusses each of these in great detail, and includes information on predictive modeling as well.

This chapter describes the nine steps of a failure investigation. The steps add detail to the problem-solving process introduced in Chapter 3. The first five steps are (1) understanding and negotiating the investigation goals, (2) obtaining an understanding of the failure, (3) objectively and clearly identifying all possible root causes, (4) evaluating the likelihood of each root cause, and (5) converging on the most likely root cause(s). Many failure investigations stop at this point, but significant value is provided in the next four steps, which are (6) identifying all possible corrective actions, (7) evaluating each corrective action, (8) selecting the optimal corrective action(s), and (9) evaluating the effectiveness of each corrective action. Each step is discussed in detail with examples along with information on the procedures to be followed and resources needed for the investigation.

This chapter begins with an overview of the history of ion nitriding. This is followed by sections that describe how the ion nitriding process works, glow discharge characteristics, process parameters requiring good control, and the applications of plasma processing. The chapter explores what happens in the ion nitriding process and provides information on its gas ratios. It describes the reactions that occur at the surface of the material being treated during iron nitriding and defines corner effect and nitride networking. Further, the chapter provides information on the stability of surface layers and processes involved in the degradation of surface finish and control of the compound zone formation. Gases primarily used for ion nitriding and the control parameters used in ion nitriding are also covered. The chapter also presents the philosophies and advantages of the plasma generation technique for nitriding. It concludes with processes involved in oxynitriding.

This chapter covers the failure modes and mechanisms associated with boiler components and the tools and techniques used to assess damages and predict remaining component life. It begins with a review of the design and operation of a utility boiler and the materials used in construction. It then describes the various causes of failure in boiler tubes, headers, and steam pipes, explaining how and why they occur, how they are diagnosed, and how to mitigate their effects. The final and by far largest section in the chapter is a tutorial on damage and life assessment techniques for boiler components and assemblies. It demonstrates the use of various methods, including analytical techniques that estimate life expenditure based on operating history, component geometry, and material properties; predictive methods based on the extrapolation of failure statistics; methods that predict life based on dimensional measurements; methods based on metallographic studies; methods based on temperature estimates; and a method for estimating remaining life under creep conditions based on stress-rupture testing of service-exposed material samples. The chapter also discusses the use of fracture mechanics and presents a number of cases in which life assessments are made based on the integration of several methods.

Process gas control for plasma (ion) nitriding is a matter of estimating the flows necessary to accomplish the required surface metallurgy. This chapter reviews several studies aimed at better understanding process gas control in plasma nitriding and its influence on compound zone formation. Emphasis is placed on the effect of sputtering on the kinetics of compound zone formation. The discussion covers the processes involved in process gas control analysis by photo spectrometry and mass spectrometry and the difficulties associated with gas analysis.

Ceramics normally have high melting temperatures, excellent chemical stability and, due to the absence of conduction electrons, tend to be good electrical and thermal insulators. They are also inherently hard and brittle, and when loaded in tension, have almost no tolerance for flaws. This chapter describes the applications, properties, and behaviors of some of the more widely used structural ceramics, including alumina, aluminum titanate, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, zirconia, zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA), magnesia-partially stabilized zirconia (Mg-PSZ), and yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline (Y-TZP). It also provides information on materials selection, design optimization, and joining methods, and covers every step of the ceramic production process.

Residual, or locked-in internal, stresses are regions of misfit within a metal part or assembly that can cause distortion and fracture just as can the more obvious applied, or service, stresses. This chapter describes the fundamental facts about residual stresses and discusses the basic mechanisms of residual stress formation: thermal, transformational, mechanical, and chemical.

Many companies conduct only metallurgical evaluations in the wake of failures, discovering nothing more than the physical mechanism by which the failure occurred. The origin of failures, however, is often complex, involving not only physical mechanisms, but also human behavior and latent factors. Failures may also involve multiple parts, entire machines, or processes of any size and shape. The chapter examines the unique aspects of many failures and explains how they can sometimes be traced to systemic issues. It also covers the reasons why products fail, including improper service or operation, improper maintenance, improper testing, assembly errors, fabrication or manufacturing errors, and design errors. The case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse is presented to illustrate the consequence of overlooked factors, in this case, wind dynamics, and the importance of identifying root causes to prevent repeat failures.

This chapter describes the effect of temperature and strain rate on the mechanical properties and forming characteristics of aluminum and magnesium sheet materials. It discusses the key differences between isothermal and nonisothermal warm forming processes, the factors that affect heat transfer, die heating techniques, and press systems. It also discusses the effect of forming temperature, punch velocity, blank size, and other parameters on deep drawing processes, making use of both experimental and simulated data.