Articles tagged Failure analysis (FA)

Subsequent to a failure, the logical systematic examination of an item, its construction, application, and documentation to identify the failure and determine the failure mechanism and its basic cause. FA provides the necessary information to identify suitable short-term and long-term solutions to avoid similar failures in the future.

by Mike Sondalini 2 Comments

Failure Analysis of a Gearbox, Fan, Bearing and Shaft

When equipment breaks unexpectedly it is good practice to investigate why it happened so that the root cause can be rectified and the problem prevented from again happening.

There are no mysterious causes, only poor systems or system failures. It is not often that people intentionally sabotage plant and equipment.

By analyzing why a thing happened the lesson can be absorbed and changes made to business systems to reduce its probability of reoccurrence.

In this article, four equipment failures are reviewed and investigated to determine their cause and the resulting necessary changes.

Keywords: root cause failure analysis, failure mode. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

A Fault Finding a Technique that Works

What you will learn from this article.

Accurate findings from investigations require accurate knowledge.
Design extra equipment into a new plant for problem analysis.
On existing plant add-in the equipment you need for problem-solving.
Trace problems by going from plant to equipment item to sub-system.

Fixing plant and equipment about which you know little is daunting.

Here are a few ideas to help you successfully fault find failed equipment. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 1 Comment

Electronics Failure Analysis Done the Right Way

“Failures are gold”

Early in my career the engineering manager relished discovering equipment failure.

It didn’t matter if it was human, electronic, mechanical or software in nature, the glint in his eye soon gave way to a flood of possibilities. He enjoyed the process of investigating the fundamental reasons a failure occurred. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

Failure Analysis: The Key to Learning From Failure

Why do so many avoid failure?

In product development of plant asset management, we are surrounded by people that steadfastly do not want to know about or talk about failures.

Failure does happen. Let’s not ignore this simple fact. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

The Meaning of a Failure

Every failure provides information. It provides time to failure, stress strength relationship, process stability and design margin types of information. In every case. Even failures directly related to human error.

A hardware intermittent failure observed by a firmware engineer should not be dismissed. Rather recorded, explored and examined.

A single intermittent failure, or glitch, may indicate nothing other than just a totally random glitch, or a design error that degrades over time causing 50% of units to fail in first three months.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 2 Comments

4 Electronics Nondestructive Evaluations

It is possible to use the circuit design or the circuit itself to evaluate electronics. This ranges from checking if the system is wired correctly (the right parts are present and attached properly) to a complex evaluation including the proper functioning of firmware and attached software.

Beyond visual inspection, we need a way to evaluate the microscopic structures with today’s electronic components.

The ability to provide inputs and measure outputs provides one view and in most cases is nondestructive. [Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg 3 Comments

8 Nondestructive Evaluation Techniques

There are times when we need to evaluate a product to determine is it assembled correctly or when looking for clues concerning a failure mechanism. Simple visual inspection may be sufficient and there are times when we need more information or detail.

A great first step is the use of an appropriate nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method.

Done correctly, we keep the item unchanged and available for shipment or further inspection.

[Read more…]

by Fred Schenkelberg Leave a Comment

Failure Modes and Mechanisms

When something fails, what should we do?

A natural question when something fails is

Why did it fail?

The answer is not always obvious or easy to sort out.

One of my favorite examples was on a circuit board that had a small burn mark where a component exploded off the board. The customer didn’t notice that missing part, our engineering team did that. [Read more…]