Read Consulting, a California materials failure analysis laboratory, has performed failure analysis of a wide variety of sigh glasses. In this case a failed reflex boiler sight glass was analyzed..  Reflex sight glasses are used to read the liquid level in boilers and other process equipment. The liquid level is read directly with the eyes […]

When a PVC fitting with female pipe thread is coupled with male brass pipe threads, the PVC half is put into tension (i.e. hoop stress). The threads are tapered, and when the two halves are joined to produce a leak free joint, the PVC is put into tension and has the probability to fail over […]

  Read Consulting was asked to examine a failed sight glass and perform a glass failure analysis. The is a compression sealed soda lime glass window in a 1215 steel bushing. Thus the glass window is in compression. Several representative failed sight glasses were examined, and all had the same crack pattern. The cracking is […]

Tempered glass is often used for shower doors. As a result, there have been numerous shower door failures. Often the glass failure analysis cannot be performed because of the large number of resulting pieces and the inability to locate the pieces associated with the origin. In this failure example tempered glass was used to construct […]