ABSTRACT
The failed component always tells an accurate story about what happened. The problem with many analyses is that they succumb to human weaknesses and jump to conclusions before reading the entire story. A good failure analyst needs Sherlock Holmes’ powers of observation along with an understanding of the operations surrounding the failure and the ability, diplomacy, and tenacity to question everything. Failure analyses help the plant to find all of the things that contribute to a failure and then do something to prevent a recurrence. In an overload failure the part either bends or breaks almost instantaneously. An overload failure tells that something unusual has happened and usually results from a single event. In an overload failure the part either bends or breaks almost instantaneously. Fatigue failures result from multiple stress cycles and take place over a comparatively very long time.
