Evaluation Parameters for Failure Analysis
Failure analysis is essential for increasing product reliability. Clues for quality improvements can only be obtained by identifying aspects that do not satisfy performance requirements and then determining the causes of failures. The following is a summary of evaluation parameters useful for evaluating performance requirements and analyzing the causes that affect performance.
| Evaluation | Instrument | |
|---|---|---|
| External Inspections | Observing fracture/failure surfaces | EPMA, laser microscopes |
| Non-Destructive Observation of Internal Structures | Observing distribution of voids and fillers | X-Ray CT |
| Confirming crystallinity | Raman, DSC | |
| Observing morphology | SPM | |
| Analyzing Contaminants | Organic matter | FTIR |
| Inorganic matter | EDX, ICP-OES, EPMA | |
| Evaluation of Mechanical Properties | Tensile, bending, and compression testing | Universal testing machines |
| Hardness testing | Hardness testers | |
| Impact testing | High-speed impact testing machines | |
| Fatigue testing | Fatigue testing machine | |
| Viscoelasticity | Fatigue testing machine | |
| Evaluating Thermal Properties | DSC, TGA | |
| Molecular Weight Distribution | GPC | |
| Composition Analysis | FTIR, Raman, PY-GC/MS, MALDI | |
| Ratio of Each Component in Composition | TGA, FTIR | |
| Chemical Structural Analysis | FTIR, Raman, MALDI, LC/MS | |
| Physical Structural Analysis | FTIR, Raman | |
| Observing morphology | SPM | |
| Additive Analysis | Composition analysis of organic matter | FTIR, PY-GC/MS, LC/MS |
| Organic matter quantitative analysis | PY-GC/MS, LC/MS, MALDI | |
| Inorganic matter composition analysis plus quantitative analysis | EDX, ICP-OES, ICP/MS, EPMA | |
| Particle size measurement | Particle size analyzer |