Failure Analysis

RJ Lee Group’s experts apply our unique industrial forensics approach to your project, assuring that each step of the process is being investigated from material selection to the final product. Once we discover the root cause of product failure, we relay the results so that you thoroughly understand how and why your component or product failed. Our scientists will also recommend both corrective and preventive actions to reduce future risk of failure and optimize performance.

RJ Lee Group’s experts undertake industrial forensic inquiry into failed components, products, or systems. Our failure analysis specialties include metallurgical, electronic device, concrete, and specialty chemicals and coatings.

Lab-Supported Failure Analysis Investigations

RJLG experts begin by closely inspecting the product, then interview the client to understand the circumstances of failure, the operating conditions, and the maintenance provided. Our experts reconstruct the mode of failure and identify materials characteristics that may have contributed to failure. Armed with these results, we assist our client in minimizing or eliminating their effects. Our experts provide expert analytical support from the micro-level of a failed semiconductor to identifying flaws in hot worked mill rolls 10 feet in diameter.

The failure analysis lab includes a suite of electron microscopy and spectroscopy methods that are critical in failure investigations.

Our capabilities include:

  • Field Deployment of SMEs and Analytical Tools
    • Site Inspection (including drone services)
    • Sample Collection
      • Bulk, lifts, soil cores, air samples
      • Concrete coring
      • Sectioning of samples for lab analysis
    • Lab in the Field
      • Metallography
      • Non-Destructive Analysis
        • Handheld XRF
        • Impact Echo
        • Dye Penetrant
    • Non-Destructive Lab Evaluations
    • Corrosion
      • Assessment and testing
      • Materials selection for a corrosive environment
      • Accelerated Life Testing
    • Surface and Coating Analysis
    • Chemical Analysis
    • Microscopy
      • Stereo-microscope for fractography and surface assessment
      • Optical microscopy for microstructual analysis
      • Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for phase identification, local chemistry and fracture surface assessment
    • Full-Service Metallography Laboratory
    • Full-Service Petrography Laboratory

To view the Failure Analysis Datasheet handout, please click here. 

To view the Failure Analysis Case Study handout, please click here.