Plastic Part Failure Analysis

Date: October 29, 2009 (AP8417)

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Cost: $535 USD -- Save $100 by taking with "Plastic Material Selection and Testing." Both courses only $1,295 USD ($100 savings).

CEU's: .75

Instructor: Michael Sepe

Location: Akron Polymer Training Center, Akron, OH, 44325-5404

Course Overview: This course covers elements of a successful plastic product; principles of plastic part design, mold design considerations, material selection, processing, failure analysis tools and failure analysis process.

Course Outline:

1. Elements of a successful plastic product
   1. Part design
   2. Mold design
   3. Material selection
   4. Processing
2. Principles of plastic part design
   1. Nominal walls
   2. Ribs and other projections
   3. Holes and other depressions
   4. Designing for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA)
   5. Design properties versus inherent properties of materials
3. Mold design considerations
   1. Mold steel selection
   2. Managing polymer flow in the mold - runners and gates
   3. Cavitation and the effect on balanced flow
   4. The economics of cavitation
   5. Hot runners versus conventional cold runners
   6. Mold temperature control
   7. Draft angles and ejection
4. Material selection
   1. Defining the application environment - time, temperature, stresses, etc.
   2. Amorphous and semi-crystalline polymers
   3. The importance of molecular weight
   4. Structural choices within a polymer family
   5. Property modifiers and additives
   6. Regulatory considerations - UL, NSF, FDA
   7. Performance and processability
   8. Establishing the cost/performance balance
5. Processing
   1. The fundamentals of polymer flow
   2. The effect of material structure on sound processing decisions
   3. Machine selection
   4. Process control strategies
   5. The quest for six sigma
6. Failure analysis tools
   1. Material testing - composition and degradation
      1. Molecular weigh evaluations
      2. Thermal Analysis - DSC, TGA, DMA, TMA
      3. Spectroscopy - FTIR, EDS, XPS, SIMS
   2. Microscopy - cross sections and scanning electron microscopy
   3. Physical property evaluation - your part is not a tensile bar
   4. FEA and its relation to the application environment
   5. Advanced characterization of mechanical properties
7. The failure analysis process
   1. Gathering background information
   2. Focusing on the four fundamentals of a successful product
   3. Conducting the appropriate evaluations
   4. Establishing root cause
   5. Fixing what is broken
   6. Understanding the interactions of multiple causes
   7. The role of designs of experiment
   8. The cost/benefit analysis of problem solving
   9. Following up
8. Case studies

Back to Plastic Courses