Integrative Failure Analysis
These failure analyses often require an integrative analytical approach as well as interaction with engineers throughout the organization to conclude the root cause of the failure. The integrative approach, which he has promoted for over 40 years, is more than just metallography, scanning electron microscopy and mechanical testing. Honeywell UOP Research has a plethora of available instrumentation that is not available at any metallurgical failure analysis laboratory. He has often used such capabilities in many failure analyses, which have included x-ray diffraction to identify the crystalline corrosion species on a metal, infrared spectroscopy to identify plastic components and determine their age, x-ray photon electron spectroscopy for analysis of surface corrosion species, ion chromatography for quantifying anion and cation corrosion species, mass spectroscopy for identification of organic fouling species, ICP and XRF for bulk analysis of corrosion species and combustion C and S for quantifying coke and sulfide. External customers have come to rely on the combination of high quality, sophisticated and thorough UOP metallurgical analyses combined with the appropriate engineering design. Several of the non-proprietary failure analyses were presented at NACE and MSA meetings.