A woman was leaning on a sink in a public restroom. She was resting on one arm while looking into a mirror above the sink. Suddenly the sink fell off the wall and injured her foot. The cause of failure was severe corrosion of the cast iron bracket that held the sink to the sall. […]
Storage Tank Failures, Tank Failure Analysis
Storage tanks have a finite lifetime, and they should be carefully inspected annually. Read Consulting has performed numerous storage tank failure analysis. Steel tank failures were caused by corrosion. PVC tanks failures were caused by UV degradation of the polymer. Attached are two representative photos of tank failures analyzed in the past. One failure was […]
Sewer Pipe Failure Analysis
Failure expert performs a failure analysis on a cracked drain pipe removed from a high rise building. The pipe drained rainwater from the roof down to the ground This 2 3/4″ OD cast iron pipe began to fail after approximately 12 years of service. The upper left photo is an overview of a piece of […]
California Failure Analysis Lab Examines Stainless Steel Corrosion Failure
Stainless steel corrosion failures often result from grain boundary sensitization. Many 300 series stainless steel alloys come in two grades or more. For example 304 stainless steel comes as 304, 304L and 304H. Each grade has a different amount of carbon (C). the 304 grade allows up to .0.08% C; whereas 304 L allows a […]
Plumbing Failure Analysis
Northern California failure analysis expert often performs plumbing failure analysis. In this case, the corrosion expert examines plumbing in numerous houses that were plugged due to brass dezincification of yellow brass. In this case, the zinc in the copper-zinc alloy corrodes selectively and this leaves a white deposit on the interior of the pipe. The […]