Examination of failed components can directly lead to corrective actions. Correlation of observations on appearance, composition, and strength can point to the cause and often, to a cure. Determining the root cause of a product or component failure requires a review of design and manufacturing history, and of the operating conditions and service environment. Tests typically include optical microscopy, fractography, SEM, chemical analysis, hardness and microstructure determination. Testing modes include fully-reversed axial, torsional, bending, radial, oscillatory or full rotation, and each mode with feedback control.
Analysis can include calculation of predicted fatigue lives following experimental determinations.
Capacity, life testing in oscillation or full rotation of roller, pillow block, tapered roller and ball bearings. Surface measurements include roundness, roughness. In this process, cylindrical or flat tensile-style samples are subjected to fully reversed fatigue loading with strain monitoring. Each sample is tested to a single load, but after 15 to 20 samples are tested at different loads, the data is mathematically analyzed to determine the elastic and plastic strain-life curves. Determination of strength, ductility and toughness for both metallic or plastic materials is done to ASTM, SAE or ISO standards.