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.

This chapter provides information on the biennial International Wear of Materials Conference, which is the inspiration for this book. It reviews the fundamentals of tribology, tribosystems, and related terminology. The glossary at the end of this chapter is intended to familiarize readers with some of the fundamental tribology terms that will be repeated throughout this book.

This chapter covers the friction and wear behaviors of cast irons. It describes the microstructure and metallurgy of gray, white, malleable, and ductile cast irons, their respective tensile properties, and their suitability for applications involving friction, various types of erosion, and adhesive and abrasive wear.

This article provides a brief description of commercially important thermal spray processes and gives examples of applications and application requirements. The processes covered are flame, wire arc, plasma, high-velocity oxyfuel processes, detonation gun, and cold spray methods. Examples are provided of the applications in aerospace, automotive, and medical device industries as well as the use of thermal spray as an additive manufacturing technique.

Molybdenum thermal spray coatings are used in aerospace and other industries for wear resistance applications. Metallographic sample preparation of molybdenum coatings presents unique challenges. The purpose of the investigation described in this article is to determine Accepted Practices for sample preparation to better understand the process related microstructures of thermal spray molybdenum powders. The committee followed a round robin approach to assess metallographic sample preparation by a variety of laboratories. The article summarizes the results of the committee’s work.

This chapter discusses the design and operation of hydraulic presses. It begins by describing the role of each major component in a hydraulic system. It then explains the difference between pump-driven and accumulator-driven presses and the types of applications for which are suited. The chapter goes on to describe the load, energy, and time-dependent characteristics of hydraulic presses and the factors that determine accuracy. It also explains how hydraulic presses are used for deep drawing, fine blanking, and hydroforming as well as warm forming and hot stamping operations.

A system failure occurs when a system does not do what it is supposed to do when it is supposed to do it, or it does something it is not supposed to do. This chapter provides a basic understanding of how failures occur, how systems operate, and the types of failures, namely intermittent and inadvertent system failures.

This chapter discusses the processes and procedures involved in tribotesting, the significance of test parameters and conditions, and practical considerations including test metrics and measurements and the interpretation of wear damage. It also describes the different types of erosion tests in use and common approaches for adhesive wear and abrasion testing.

This chapter presents various case histories that illustrate a variety of failure mechanisms experienced by the high-strength steel components in aerospace applications. The components covered are catapult holdback bar, AISI 420 stainless steel roll pin, main landing gear (MLG) lever, inboard flap hinge bolt, nose landing gear piston axle, multiple-leg aircraft-handling sling, aircraft hoist sling, internal spur gear, and MLG axle. In addition, the chapter provides information on full-scale fatigue testing, nondestructive testing, and failure analysis of fin attach bolts.

This chapter presents guidelines for product designers to choose the best process and alloys while designing a casting. The discussion covers some of the factors pertinent to the selection of the best process for the product function and performance, namely geometric factors, mechanical properties, tooling cost per piece, and overall cost factors. The chapter contains tables listing several markets, products, popular processes, and common alloys and the common processes used for a variety of markets and products.

Prior to forging, it is often necessary to preform billet stock to achieve adequate material distribution. This chapter discusses the equipment used for such operations, including transverse rolling machines, electric upsetters, ring-rolling mills, horizontal presses, and rotary (orbital) and radial forging machines. It describes their basic operating principles as well as advantages and disadvantages.

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.

This article provides a high-level overview of thermal spray technologies and their applications and benefits. It is intended to educate members of government, industry, and academia to the benefits of thermal spray technology. The article describes the value of thermal spray technology with examples of application success stories. A few applications critical to thermal spray and market growth are briefly discussed. The article also summarizes the key research areas in thermal spray technology.

This chapter provides guidelines and insights on the selection of materials, coatings, and treatments for friction and wear applications. It begins with a review of the system nature of tribological effects, the subtleties of friction, and the selection idiosyncrasies of the material systems and lubricants covered in prior chapters. It then presents a systematic approach for selecting tribomaterials, using an automotive fan motor as an example.

This chapter begins with a brief review of the different types of surface treatments and coatings used in industry and their effect on properties and performance. It then discusses the importance of corrosion and wear treatments and the consequences of failing to properly implement them in critical industries such as mining, energy production, transportation, and mineral and chemical processing. The chapter also describes basic approaches to dealing with corrosion and wear in steel.

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.

Aluminum is the second most widely used metal in the world. It is readily available, offers a wide range of properties, and can be shaped, coated, and joined using a variety of methods. This chapter discusses some of the key attributes of wrought and cast aluminum alloys and the classifications, designations, and grades of available product forms. It also explains how aluminum alloys are used in aerospace, automotive, rail, and marine applications as well as in building and construction, electrical products, manufacturing equipment, packaging, and consumer durables such as appliances and furniture.