Fastener Failure Analysis

Manufacturing systems and other similar heavy duty hardware are often comprised of a series of parts. These parts are fastened together by nuts and bolts, ensuring a secure fit between two or more components. Although these parts and their fasteners are often made to withstand the rigors of daily use, accidents can still happen due to spectacular part failures. Fasteners, in particular, can be the cause of some of the most costly and tragic accidents in industrial plants.

Nuts and bolts break causing downtime, revenue loss and even loss of life. The manufacturer or fastener distributor you purchased the fasteners from will only tell you that they meet industry testing and specification standards. They cannot provide you with the detailed information you need to prevent the failures from happening again.

You need to know how and why it failed to be able to prevent future reoccurrences. Prevention will help eliminate liability risks, promote client retention and customer satisfaction. Costly and dangerous fastener failure should never be ignored or underestimated, because it takes just a single loose bolt or damaged nut to cause a catastrophic failure or costly downtime.

Fasteners can fail due to an unnerving variety of common and simple reasons, many of which are overlooked and are caused by normal routine maintenance practices and procedures. We can create a detailed failure analysis report with corrective actions. You can trust our knowledge from decades of experience to determine the probable cause of a bolt’s failure, and how you can prevent a future fastener failure from happening again.

Send us samples of the failed products or detailed photographs of the parts and fracture surfaces and we will write a detailed evaluation of the failure; the nature of the failure, causation and resolution to prevent similar failures from occurring again. Our familiarity with metallurgy allows us to look deeper into a part’s failure, especially if an accident has something to do with a deteriorated product. GT Technical Consultants is dedicated toward helping its clients and their customers—be they industrialists, automotive companies, utility companies, mining companies, government offices, amusement parks, military personnel, insurance companies, or law firms—in determining the cause of an accident.

There are only a few basic ways fasteners can fail, but failure can be caused by many different events, either singularly or several in combination. We have the expert knowledge of over 40 years of experience, thousands of applications and failure analysis from industrial, commercial and manufacturing applications all across North America and some foreign countries to know these variables and provide solutions. You can always rely on the trustworthy services of GT Technical Consultants to provide you with the answers and guidance for the prevention of future fastener failures from reoccurring.