Failure and materials analysis at the heart of industrial reliability

Failure and materials analysis is the Sherlock Holmes of engineering. It involves understanding why a product or component has failed, or why it is likely to fail. The failure analysis laboratory plays a key role in validating the hypotheses formulated during an analytical process by providing tangible evidence of actual or potential failure modes.

At the heart of this key activity is investigation. Failure and materials analysis experts use sophisticated analytical techniques to conduct their investigations:

• Electronic board inspection: Sopemea's experts meticulously examine printed circuit boards to detect manufacturing defects, faulty soldering or damaged components that could cause failures leading to production line stoppages.
  
  
• Micro-sections and dimensional measurements: by making precise metallographic cuts of materials and components and performing high-precision measurements, Sopemea can analyse the internal structure of materials, the thickness of coatings or the geometry of components to identify anomalies.
  
  
• Advanced imaging techniques: using 2D/3D X-rays, our teams can visualise the interior of parts without destroying them, thereby detecting cracks, inclusions or assembly defects that are invisible to the naked eye. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), meanwhile, provides nanometric-scale analysis, enabling us to understand the microstructure of materials and their elemental composition and identify the root causes of failure.
  
  
• Technical cleanliness analysis: this crucial field involves detecting and identifying microscopic contaminants (particles, organic residues, ionic contamination) that could affect the performance or service life of components, particularly in sensitive systems such as electronics or hydraulics.