Spring 1

Visual inspection
Longitudinal crack on the surface
Fracture surface fatigue
Fracture surface initiation at the crack inside the
material (at the tip of the longitudinal crack), stress
concentration!

Crack is a manufacturing defect formed during

working (shaping) process
Slag (EDS Ca, O, Al etc.)

Material 50CrV4, OK (spectrometer)

Microstructure (tempered martensite) and
hardness OK

Spring 1

Spring 1

Spring 1

Spring 2
From a drill working in a mine very dirty
cleaning of fracture surfaces
Visual inspection
Fracture surface fatigue
Initiation site on the surface
A large amount of cracks at the region of contact
Conclusion: the spring has been too loose
Corrosion on the surface, but it was not the principal
reason of the failure

Spring 2
SEM
Fracture surface fatigue
Cracks on the surface

Optical microscopy + hardness testing

Material at the core OK (tempered martensite)
Material at the surface layer soft
Carbides have been precipitated overheated
during manufacturing (too high tempering
temperature)

Spring 2
Material 50CrV4
Composition was wrong (Cr and V low)

Tensile test the strength values were OK

Conclusions (reasons of the failure)
The spring too loose overlapping helixes can slap
against each other
Soft surface cracking act as fatigue initiation
sites
(Composition)

Spring 2

Spring 2

Spring 2

Spring 2

Spring 2

Chain Loop
Used in paper mill, transportation of wood
stocks from outside to defreezer unit
Exposes to rain, temperature changes
from -30 C to +60 C, humidity, organinic
compounds (e.g. acids) secreted from
wood and mechanical loads
Manufactured by welding, case hardened

Chain Loop
Visual inspection
Quite hard wear
Abrasive
Tribochemical

Not the reason of the failure

Optical microscopy
Cracks propagating along grain boundaries
Cracks do not extend themselves deeper into the
material than the case hardened layer

Microstructere and hardness OK

Chain Loop

Conclusions (reasons of the failure)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Welding welding stresses

Atmosphere (humidity, organic acids), low pH
Grain boundary failure
Case hardening
A well known fact: high-strength materials are
susceptible to stress corrosion cracking

1-5 Stress corrosion cracking

How to avoid? no case hardening, some
coating method, e.g. boronizing or thermal
spraying

Chain Loop

Chain Loop

Cadmium plated bolts

Two companies (A and B) make parts for
airplane skeletons
The parts contain cadmium plated bolts,
cadmium is commonly used coating in aviation
applications (although it is poisonous)
The parts are packed into closed plywood
containers and sent to Brazil for assembly
When the container were opened
Parts made by company A were OK
The Cd-plated bolts made by company B were
completely covered by white debris, also strong smell
of vinegar was observed

Cadmium plated bolts

Interview of people
In the customs duty of Brazil the containers
may lie in direct sunlight even 2 weeks
T can rise up to 80 C
Humidity is very high
A and B use containers made from different
types of plywood

Cadmium plated bolts

Simulation
Take two glass pots, put plywood A into the other pot and
plywood B into the other
Fill half-full with water
Insert the pots (sealed) into a heat chamber, 80 C, 24 hours

Analysis of the water

Gas chromatography + mass spectrometer

Plywood B dissolves in water a tenfold amount of acetic acid as
compared to plywood B

Conclusions
A corrosion-problem
Cadmium reacts strongly wit acetic acid

Solution
Use another type of plywood

Transfer Shaft

Low carbon, low alloyed steel

Gas nitrogen hardened (560 C, 20 hours)
Extremely brittle, impact tougness 0
Visual examination, SEM
Brittle fracture
No microstructural evidence for brittleness was found

Well-known?-fact (literature survey)

Low-alloys steels suffer temper brittleness during gas nitrogen
hardening
Can be studied and analysed only with TEM

Solution
Chande material
Change (nitrogen) hardening method

Transfer Shaft

Fixation Bars
Old lot and new lot
Material AISI 316 (austenitic stainless steel)
New lot: problems in machining burr expensive to
remove
New lot, hardness is 10 % lower than the hardness of old
lot material behaves more plastically during machining
No difference in composition
Difference in microstructure
Recrystallization of some of the grains (substructure)
Too high annealing temperature after working of the new lot

Solution: Send a bill to manufacturer

Fixation Bars

Fixation Bars

Fixation Bars

Fixation bars

Arthroscopic Drill
arthroscope (':r,skp) n a tubular
instrument that is inserted into the capsule
of a joint to examine the joint, extract
tissue, etc (medical instrument)
Failed and broke during use
Only fracture surfaces were studied (SEM)
Fatigue, overloading regarding to fatigue
strength

Arthroscopic Drill

Arthroscopic Drill

Arthroscopic Drill

Wheel Rim

Broken suddenly
Visual inspection, stereomicroscope, SEM
Brittle fracture
Initiation site

Cutting into two halves significant distortion large residual

stresses
Initiation site

Heat-affected zones welding?

Slag faults

Tensile test brittle material

Reasons of the failure

Brittleness
Residual stresses
Welding has produced a weak point (initiation site)

Wheel Rim

Wheel Rim
Initiation site

Fracture surface

Wheel Rim

Wheel Rim

Wheel Rim
600
500

Stress (MPa)

400
300
200
100
0
-0.5

-100

0.5

1
Strain (%)

1.5

2.5