Can you perform Failure Analysis of a roller shaft in our Cement Plant?
TCR takes pride in performing the most detailed failure analysis study in India. For a roller shaft used in your Cement plant, we propose to undertake the analysis in the following manner:
1)Our senior engineer will visit your site and carryout detailed inspection of failed shaft and adjoining equipments. This will include examination of fracture surface visually and by optical aids. He will also make the locations for in-situ Metallography to be carried out on the shaft.
2)We will carryout a Portable Hardness Test, in-situ Metallography, Ultrasonic Flaw Detection and Dye Penetrant test on the failed shaft.
3)You will have to get a sample piece cut from the shaft as guided by our metallurgist for investigation in the lab and for mechanical testing.
Once all the information as stated above are available, we will be in a position to make our cause of failure. If these do not lead us to any conclusion, we may have to go in for advanced technique such as Fractography, Scanning Electron Microscopy & Eday Analysis to find the cause of failure. In such a case, the cost will go up.
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Can you assess our C.S. pipes?
We can definitely take up the job of assessment to your C S Pipes. We can proceed in two different ways depending on precision, extent of information, cost and environmental consideration.
1. In this program 1, we can make use of completely computerized system which will give you a full panoramic picture of extent of pitting / thickness loss after cleaning the pipes with high pressure hydro jets (which are environmentally friendly) we can also perform random insitu Metallography to ascertain absence of any type of HIC or SSCC Cracks, Random Hardness survey to find extent of age hardening and a few samples can be tested for physical properties to ascertain whether they are still ductile enough. Based on this information, we can draw our conclusion about the present status of these pipes.
2. Alternatively in program 2, we can carryout random checks of thickness on some pipes after getting them cleared by sound blasting from your side. We can then perform random insitu Metallography, hardness test and some pieces can go for physical lab test. Please note that this would be a cheaper alternative than program 1 but information received also will be limited and cleaning process may not be environmentally friendly.
In case of program 1 for Hydro Jetting, we would need a sample piece of 1’ long couriered to us so that we can ascertain whether this method is effective in cleaning or not. Once you let us know your impressions or interest in program 1 or 2, we will send you a quotation accordingly.
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Can you perform Failure Investigation of a Gas Turbine in Shanghai, China?
TCR Engineering Services of Mumbai, India are able to carryout Failure Investigation on samples drawn from your site and tested in our lab in India. The charges will be approximately US $2,500. However if it is found necessary to get some investigation done at site such as NDT, Positive Material Identification, Insitu Metallography etc. then the cost will be extra at actuals. The total cost of travel (Air Fare) from Mumbai to Shanghai for our engineer will be US $ 1000 by economy class. We expect the cost of stay, food & local transport to be around US $ 150 per day. Cost of travel from Shanghai to the site is not known to us and you may add the same.
Thus cost of visit for 1 person for 3 days will be around US $ 1500. Your total cost will be US $ 4,000 plus 12.24% Service Tax plus cost of travel & accommodation for one person for 3 days.
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Do you undertake creep measurement /health assessment of Reformer tubes?
We have extensive experience of health assessment of components exposed to high temperature and high pressure including reformer tubes. In order to conduct these tests, we adopt a two-pronged approach, consisting of NDT-inspection at site and conducting a destructive testing of a sample by removing one corner tube ( Max. radiant zone tube)
Details of NDT approach include:
1) Visual examination.
2) Dimensional measurements at three different zones of all radiant tube and other tubes ( depending upon the history of operation)
3) Ultrasonic scanning of tubes for mid wall fissures.
4) In situ metallography
5) Hardness measurements with portable hardness tester.
Destructive testing for health assessment and Remaining life assessment studies include:
1) Visual examination from external and internal surface.
2) Detailed dimensional measurements.
3) Chemical analysis of corrosion products at ID as well as OD.
4) Chemical analysis of tube material
5) Verification of mechanical properties at room temperature and at elevated temperature.
6) Creep rupture test at pre-calculated stress and temperature depending upon design calculations.
7) Macrostructure
8) Detailed microstructure examination
9) Scanning Electron Microscopy.
10) EDAX analysis
Co-relation of operation history, design details and history of tube failures with the generated data to derive the health and remaining life of the reformer tubes. In our opinion both approach simultaneously would provide you exact condition of reformer tubes.
From NDT point of view the Ultrasonic scanning of tubes for mid wall fissure would taken around of 5-8 days to complete the job and needs to be considered in the shut down schedule. All other test mentioned in the NDT would take around 2-4 days to complete the job.
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We are one of the leading Automobile Chain manufacturers in India. We are coming across instances of Chain plate failure in application. We would like you to study the failures and suggest the improvement opportunities.
TCR Engineering Services of Mumbai, India can certainly take up detailed investigation and failure analysis so as to find out cause of your problem and also suggest our recommendations to avoid such failures. We will carry complete metallurgical investigation including SEM & EDAX studies and if necessary a visit to your works by our Sr. Metallurgist. We would require 5 weeks time to complete the assignment. In case you wish us to proceed, we request you to kindly issue a formal Purchase Order and send us a cheque for Rs. 10,000/- (US $ 400) as advance so that we can forward a detailed questionnaire to you.
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What kind of test you will conduct for a combustion liner used in gas turbine after welding repair and how to do you estimate the lifetime for it?
We recommend the following investigations on the liners - In-situ Metallography, Ultrasonic Flaw Detections and a complete Hardness Survey. In addition it will be necessary to conduct a High Temp Tensile test on a all weld specimen made from the same consumables as is used for weld repair. Satisfactory observations in all these tests should give an indication that the part will have its design life. If base line data is available, remaining life can also be estimated. Please contact our metallurgists for more details.
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Can you comment on your completed failure analysis projects in the process plants?
We have extensive experience in conducting failure investigation work for component exposed to high temperature/ high pressure/corrosion conditions of process plants. Our clientele list include ABB Ltd, NCPL - Bharuch, Grasim Industries Ltd, Sarabhai Machinery, IFFCO - Kalol, North Refinery Company at Iraq, IOCL-Baroda, MRPL-Mangalore, Reliance Industries Limited - Jamnagar, Reliance Industries Limited - Hazira, Atul Limited - Valsad, Alstom Power India Ltd, Alstom power Boilers Limited - Culcatta, Hindustan Lever Limited (Goa, Chiplun, Sewri, Orai), Heavy Water Plant-Vadodara, Emerson Process Management - Mumbai, Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited - Panchmahal, Larsen & Toubro Limited - Mumbai, Diamond Dye-Chem Limited, Ankleshwar and many small scale industries.
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What line of investigation will you follow to undertake the Root Cause Failure Investigation of a Piston?
We propose following line of investigation.
- Collection of background data and history of problem (Already received)
- Visual Examination.
- Dye Penetration Test
- X-Ray Radiography Examination
- Low magnification examination
- Chemical analysis
- Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
- EDAX analysis near fracture region
- Microstructure examination from different sections with application of color Metallography approach.
- Micro hardness test, Hardness test, Tensile Test
- Literature survey and including documentation and field interviews
We will take around 3-5 weeks of time to complete the investigation and submit the report after we receive required samples along with firm purchase order.
Please note that the failure investigation report is based on data and detail supplied by the client and the recommendations are given based on the testing, without obligation to any legal & financial implication.
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What information do you need in order to conduct a failure investigation?
The following details is ideally required from the client for undertaking a Failure Investigation Study:
- Name the component with identification no.
- Name of the section of the plant/section/subsection.
- Description of the failure with photograph of failed component and system. Photograph of the system where failure has occurred. Close up view of the failure.
- Materials of construction with standard.
- Original dimension of the component.
- Schematic representation of the process and position of the failed component.
- Mechanical drawing of the component.
- Detailed process description with importance on critical parameters.
- History of failure in chronological order in case of repetitive failure.
- MOC of the adjacent component and its experience.
- Service life of the component before failure and designed life.
- Test certification of the component
- Details of the repairs attended to component before the failure.
- Evidence of upsets in the process parameters before the failure.
- Alarm trips kept in the system to avoid such failures.
- Modification alteration done to the system.
- Weather the component is imported / indigenous.
- Any other relevant details.
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Can you give me a quote for the Metallurgical Failure Analysis of a Lid Lift Assembly?
We are pleased to quote our charges for complete metallurgical failure analysis for finding root cause of failure as under:
Our investigation will include SEM & EDAX Analysis along with all routine Physical, Chemical and Metallurgical Examination and discussions about failure mechanism
Our charges for such an investigation will be US$ 3000 plus 12.24% Service Tax.
You will have to send failed component to our lab in Mumbai, India and we shall report in 5 weeks time.
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Can I send you a piece for failure analysis?
Just by visual examination of failed components alone, it may not be fair to make any conclusions. Detailed on site and lab investigations can through light on all relevant aspects of failures and only after all these investigations have been completed, our team of experts can draw some definite conclusion as to what may have been the root cause of failure, where the failure began and whether any sort of remedy could be possible.
In a failure analysis project, our investigations will include advanced Metallography techniques, chemical analysis, SEM and EDAX analysis, Micro Hardness test etc in addition to routine tests. Based on these investigations, our team of expert metallurgists will drawn conclusion on failure mechanism and suggest remedial measures to avoid such failures in future. In some cases it may be necessary for our senior metallurgist to visit on-site to examine the failed parts; in such a case the costs will be extra. It takes 5 weeks to conduct a failure analysis.
Typically in most cases the following information is needed along with the failed part to conduct a failure analysis study (the more the information, the better):
- Name the component with identification no.
- Name of the section of the plant/section/subsection.
- Description of the failure with photograph of failed component and system. Photograph of the system where failure has occurred. Close up view of the failure.
- Materials of construction with standard.
- Original dimension of the component.
- Schematic representation of the process and position of the failed component.
- Mechanical drawing of the component.
- Detailed process description where the failed part was in use with importance on critical parameters.
- History of failure in chronological order in case of repetitive failure.
- MOC of the adjacent component and its experience.
- Service life of the component before failure and designed life.
- Test certification of the component
- Details of the repairs attended to component before the failure.
- Evidence of upsets in the process parameters before the failure.
- Alarm trips kept in the system to avoid such failures.
- Modification alteration done to the system.
- Any other relevant details.
You can send the failed part to our laboratory in Navi Mumbai, India.
Please mention the following on the shipping document "Materials with no commercial value ($0). Materials being sent for chemical analysis and testing purposes only."
Our failure Analysis services usually the cost range from Rs. 25,000/- to Rs. 50,000/- (US $ 500 - 1200) depending on extent of testing necessary to arrive at the root cause.
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Can you undertake failure analysis on our boilers?
We thank you for referring failure analysis of your boiler tubes and wish to assure you that we can undertake this job and can get to the root of the problem. We will also be able to suggest remedial action so as to avoid such failures in future. We have undertake many such challenging jobs and we also carryout detailed metallurgical & NDT surveys of various types of boilers.
Our investigation will cover complete metallurgical investigation of the failed tubes and also other tubes being employed. This includes routine analysis as Physical / Chemical etc and advanced techniques as SEM and EDAX analysis. We will draw our conclusions based on above investigations and tell you the cause of failure. We shall also suggest remedial action
Inputs From The Customer
We shall refer to you a questionnaire in which we would request you to supply schematic drawings as well as other relevant details regarding procedures for repairs undertake at your end, location of failure in the schematic arrangement of tubes etc. If necessary one of our engineer would also visit your site to gather other relevant details.
Our charges for the detailed analysis shall be Rs. 40000/- plus 12.24% Service Tax and we would need about 4 weeks time to complete the same after your approval of our proposal and issue of a formal PO
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My competitor has come up with a superior product. Can you find out what's in it and how to make it?
When we deformulate a product, we approach the project in two phases. The first phase we call the "analysis" phase, in which we find out the composition of the product - the quantity and generic identity of each component. The analysis report also includes a listing of the function of the ingredients we find, as well as a list of potential suppliers of the raw materials. For some of our customers, this is sufficient information. In the second phase, which we call the "rebuild" phase, we actually rebuild the product, "tweaking" the formula with various grades of raw ingredients to obtain optimum performance, and determining how to add and mix the ingredients for small batches. When you contract with us to perform the "rebuild" phase, we guarantee that we will deliver a product prototype that performs as well as the original.
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Can you determine the cause of failure of our bearings?
We can undertake failure analysis of each of your bearings. Please provide us following information:
- The total sequence of failure in each case including information of history of such failures.
- Information on type of loading and other working conditions.
- Some information on failure of other components at the same time and damage / deformation observed on other components.
- Photographs of failed locations.
Please note that in case a visit by our Sr. Metallurgist becomes necessary for on site survey, an additional amount will be charged.
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Can you check non-conductive material presence in mild steel plate as we are facing problem in wire cutting?
We propose to tackle your problem in the following manner:
- Please send us a cut piece in longitudinal direction of about 1" x 1" x t with rolling direction marked properly. We shall find out presence of inclusion / non conducting material in that section. This piece should come from the one where you find problem in wire cutting.
- We will then carryout metallography, SEM & EDAX analysis to find extent and type of inclusion and based on these findings we will suggest you how you can avoid such defects.
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Can you perform Inspection and Remaining life assessment of power boilers?
We can perform the following activities:
Routine examination:
This involves undertaking Visual examination, Thickness measurements, DP, MPT, Hardness test, on site microstructure examination
This is done under annual inspection of boilers. The parameters of inspection are fixed on the capacity of Boiler with respect to operating parameters. The damage prone areas needs to be identified and inspection intervals can be fixed based on the damages present. Many times operation suggestions are derived based on the damages observed during inspection. This would ensure the checks on routine operation of boilers. It is possible to assess the early on set of damages which would prevent the catastrophic failures of the boilers.
Remaining life assessment
Remaining life assessment is based on different damage mechanisms and depends on operation for a Boiler. Higher capacity boilers are operating under the creep range principally the life of a boiler is decided on creep damage , any local temperature escalations and restriction in thermal expansion needs to be identified based on through assessments. RLA approach is done with extensive testing on boilers through NDT and destructive approach. In addition to other NDT important assessment of -
- Internal scale measurements by Ultrasonic testing.
- Creep testing of super heater and Re heater tubes
- Scanning electron microscopy of replicated microstructures.
- Thorough testing of boiler tubes removed from selected locations.
- Co relation of all testing and inferences with operation data.
The remaining life assessment is done based on the inferences data and assessments. So that next inspection interval can be fixed. It is possible to undertake RLA for power Boilers and Turbine sections. The report of RLA comprises of extensive testing of different components along with reason of damages with remedial measures and if required replacement of the components.
Failure investigation of boiler components
Many times premature failures of different components including tubes, header, turbine blades etc., which causes forced outages of boilers. It would be of paramount importance to find out the root cause of the failures by systematic metallurgical approach. The expert from TCR would visit the site and collect all necessary back ground information and collect failed samples. The detailed metallurgical approach is adopted to unfold the different evidences present on the failed samples by analyzed chemistry. physical properties and scale analysis. Fractogarphy is done with the help of Scanning Electron microscopy and methodology is done with optical microscopy. The reason of failure is identified based on testing and correlation of data. Recommendations are made to prevent its reoccurrence in future.
This is highly specialized area and needs expertise to comment on different mechanisms. However it helps in preventing repetitive failures on power plant component thus improve reliable and safe operations.
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Can you conduct failure analysis of a part of ESP (Electrical Submergible pump) which was under subsurface operations in the Crude oil field?
We are pleased to inform you that we are a pioneer organization of independent material testing lab in INDIA and have been in this field for the past 33 years. Please visit our website at www.tcreng.com to know more about us.
We have vast experience in the field of corrosion and have been providing our services to Oil and Gas Industry. Upon request, we can send you an abstract of a similar investigation done for an oil exploration company in India. In the mean time we propose to undertake your failure analysis by carrying out complete Physical and Chemical investigation, Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, EDAX Analysis, Analysis of Corrosion Products, Fractography and any other investigations which may be required to arrive at root cause of your problem. We will need about 4 weeks time to complete the job after receipt of your sample with PO.
Please provide the following information with your sample:
- Give us the component name and help us to correlate them the same from the product drawings.
- We need to have information on service temperature and service conditions. Do these pumps go in for any periodic maintenance and if so long before the failure occurred, were they we serviced.
- Whether all components sent by you are from same pump? If not, which one is from which pump
- Whether any other similar pump working at some side has been operating without such problem? Whether this failure is unique or frequent?
Failure analysis is an interactive exercise and we may have to get more information from you as we go along. Please furnish all relevant information to help us get started in the investigation.
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We are looking for an expert to check the stainless steel weld quality on one of our ships currently undergoing repairs as we are seeing cracks in this weld. Can you help?
We are pleased to inform you that we have carried out a number of investigations on SS Tanks and weld related failures in tanks and investigated the root cause of cracking in tanks by- .
- Performing thorough visual investigation of tanks where problems are noticed
- Conducting NDT Tests on welds such as ultrasonic flaw detection and Dye Penetrant testing to find out extent of defects.
- Using insitu Metallography (Replica Technique) to ascertain whether plates have not developed any stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen induced cracking or intergranular carbide precipitations. If any such items are observed, it will give us reasons for cracking while welding. Insitu metallography on welds and HAZ will also reveal whether weld zone is susceptible to corrosion or not
- Performing Portable hardness measurement will be done to ascertain proper heat treatment condition suitable for welding.
- Analyzing SEM & EDAX of replicas and extraction EDAX of corrosion product
Our quotation for this investigation of root cause of failure will be US $ 20000 plus Service Tax @12.24%. This includes cost of deputing our most senior metallurgist with team of other 3-4 persons, cost of their travel from India and accommodation etc at Singapore. You will have to make arrangement for their travel to site from hotel and back everyday and provide all necessary facilities for carrying out their job.
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Can you undertake failure analysis of a part of ESP (Electrical Submergible pump) which was under subsurface operations in the Crude oil field?
We have vast experience in the field of corrosion and have been providing our services to Oil and Gas Industry. We propose to undertake your failure analysis by performing complete Physical and Chemical investigation, Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, EDAX Analysis, Analysis of Corrosion Products, Fractography and any other investigations which may be required to arrive at root cause of your problem. Our charges for this job will be US $ 1600 inclusive of all Service Taxes. We need about 4 weeks time to complete the job after receipt of your sample with PO.
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