APTECH maintains a complete in-house metallurgical and mechanical test laboratory to support our extensive failure analysis, condition assessment, and forensic/legal work. The following is a listing of our facilities.

Evidence examination

Metallurgical microscope

Scanning-electron microscope

Microscopic creep damage

Fatigue failure

Tube failure at lug attachment

Photodocumentation

Film and digital photography
Macro- and micro-imaging, fractography
Color and black & white
Film and digital video recording

Material Preparation

Wet and dry sectioning, flame cutting
Machining and welding*
Metallographic mounting,polishing and etching
Wet chemistry lab
Glass bead blasting

Optical Microscopy

Stereobinoculars
Reichert-Jung MeF3 research metallograph

Scanning Electron Microscopy

EOL JSM-35CF electron microscope
EDX chemical microanalysis
Other chemical analysis (SIMS, XRF, etc.)*

Hardness Testing

Wilson-Rockwell hardness tester
Shimadzu microhardness tester
Equotip portable field hardness tester

Mechanical Testing

MTS computerized tensile, fatigue
    and fracture toughness testing
Strain gage installation
PC-based data acquisition
High temperature creep testing*

Inspection Equipment

Color videoprobe
Magnetic particle testing
Ultrasonic testing
Metallurgical surface replication
Crack depth measurement
Acoustic emission
Barkhausen noise analysis
Pulsed Eddy Current (Incotest)
Alloy Analyzer

*Equipment available at Aptech or
in cooperation with local laboratories

For additional information see Laboratory Facilities on the APTECH Forensic Engineering Services Web site.

Did you know — APTECH provides a metallurgical laboratory supporting failure analysis and condition assessment of power plant components, turbines, boiler tubes, and high energy steam pipes.. services cont.