Service 01 · Investigate
Failure analysis and root cause investigation.
When a boom cracks, a chute wears through or a weld lets go in service, fixing it is only half the job. The other half is knowing why it happened and whether it will happen again. Veristruct investigates failures on heavy, ageing and critical plant, and documents the findings so they hold up to review.
When to call
- A crack has turned up at inspection and nobody is sure what caused it.
- The same component has failed twice.
- A repair has failed, or failed sooner than it should have.
- An incident, insurance claim or warranty question needs the cause documented.
- An OEM is recommending replacement, and you need to know whether the cause is design, operation, material or workmanship.
How an investigation runs
- Preserve and gather the evidence. Operating and maintenance history, drawings, previous repairs, NDT reports and photographs. The failed part is the most valuable evidence of all, so fracture faces are protected before anyone cleans, grinds or repairs them.
- Characterise the failure. Fracture surface features, crack paths, corrosion and wear patterns, weld quality and material condition are recorded and interpreted. Where laboratory work is needed, such as metallography, hardness or chemical analysis, it is scoped with you first and carried out by an accredited laboratory.
- Establish the cause. The physical mechanism, the contributing factors, and the system causes behind them: design details, operating practice, maintenance strategy, material or fabrication quality.
- Control the recurrence. Practical recommendations ranked by risk: a repair pathway, a design change, an inspection interval, an operating limit or a change to the maintenance strategy. Where the failure mode warrants it, it is carried into an FMECA to AS IEC 60812.
Failure mechanisms we investigate
- Fatigue cracking at welds, holes and changes of section
- Brittle fracture
- Hydrogen-assisted cracking in welds
- Corrosion, erosion-corrosion and section loss
- Wear and abrasion
- Overload and buckling
- Lamellar tearing in thick plate
- Weld imperfections that grew in service
Typical assets
Excavator booms and sticks, dump bodies and chassis, crusher and screen structures, conveyor frames and pulleys, chutes, bins and hoppers, fixed-plant structures and platforms, trailers and mobile equipment frames. If it is steel plant or a steel structure on an industrial site, carries load and has failed, it is in scope.
What you receive
- A findings report with an evidence register and photographs
- A root-cause statement with the contributing factors
- Recurrence controls, ranked by risk
- An FMECA worksheet to AS IEC 60812, where the failure mode warrants one
- A repair pathway, ready to hand to repair engineering and a weld repair procedure
Keep the failed part, and keep it as it is. Photograph it in place before removal, tag it and store it dry. Do not grind, weld or reassemble the fracture faces: they carry most of the evidence about where the failure started and how it grew.
Questions Asked
Failure analysis FAQs.
What should we do with the failed part?
Keep it, and keep it as it is. Photograph it in place before removal, tag it and store it dry. Do not clean, grind, weld or reassemble the fracture surfaces, because they record where the failure started and how it grew.
Can the investigation be done remotely?
Often, yes. Clear photographs, NDT reports, drawings and the operating history are enough to start. If the evidence needs a site inspection, the visit is quoted as its own line, with travel from Mudgee shown.
Do you do metallurgical testing?
Veristruct scopes the testing, specifies what the laboratory is to look for and interprets the results. The testing itself is carried out by an accredited laboratory, and its cost is agreed with you before samples are sent.
Will the report say who is at fault?
The report establishes the cause and the contributing factors from the evidence. It describes the condition and the mechanism, not the culprit, which is what makes it useful for fixing the problem.
How is a failure investigation priced?
As a fixed-scope package once the problem is understood, so the cost is known before work starts. Laboratory testing and site attendance, where needed, are shown as separate lines.
What happens after the investigation?
Most investigations end in a repair. The findings feed into repair engineering and a weld repair procedure, and into the maintenance strategy so the next inspection looks in the right place.
Related Services
Often part of the same job.
Start With The Evidence
Send us the photos and the report.
Describe what failed and when. We will come back with a practical starting point, usually within one business day.