Who can tell me why a metal part fractured?
Fractography reads the fracture surface — beach marks, striations, dimples, cleavage — to separate fatigue, overload and environmentally assisted cracking. It is usually combined with metallography, hardness and alloy verification.
What the method covers
Broken shafts, fasteners, brackets, springs and welds; SEM fractography, metallographic sections (ASTM E3 preparation) and chemistry.
Applicability caveats
- Handling, cleaning or re-mating the fracture faces destroys evidence.
- Root cause often depends on service loads and history the lab cannot see.
- A single fracture may reveal mechanism but not always the original defect.