Metallography and Failure Analysis

​Why do we conduct a failure analysis?

Failure analysis is a complicated subject involving, depending upon the problem, expertise in many disciplines. Unfortunately, despite the knowledge that we have gained over the years regarding toughness, fracture mechanics, design and design calculation, and so forth, failures still happen. Metallurgists frequently get involved with failure analysis as the stuff that fails is made of “materials”. For older metallurgists, this is mainly metals, but other materials have been known to fail as well.
We can learn a great deal about a failure by a study of the failed object. This includes examination of the fracture (if it failed by breaking) and the microstructure. This webinar will illustrate how these techniques are used to determine “why stuff breaks” as Mac Louthan says