Metallurgical testing helps to predict the future, so you can get to the core of how a material will perform down the road.
By analyzing its microstructure, chemical makeup, and mechanical properties, metallurgical testing methods help you catch potential problems before they become serious failures — and strengthen your results from the inside out.
Here’s a look at when metallurgical testing is used, what these testing methods entail, and what they reveal about material integrity.
When Is Metallurgical Testing Used?
There are several reasons to perform metallurgical testing.
For instance, metallurgical testing can help:
- If you are trying to determine which material is best for a demanding application.
- If you are performing routine testing or quality assurance.
- If you are compiling data about a material’s strength, durability, and overall performance.
- If you are trying to figure out why a product or material failed so you can be proactive in preventing failure in the future.
American Testing Services provides metallurgical testing services as a stand-alone option or in conjunction with our non-destructive testing services.
Metallurgical Testing Methods
The metallurgical testing method you choose ultimately depends on the type of information you want about your material, component, or product.
Chemical Testing
Chemical testing may include:
- Combustion analysis, providing a precise carbon and sulfur quantification of metallic samples.
- Optical emission spectroscopy, which determines the elemental composition of metallic samples.
Corrosion Testing
Corrosion due to improper heat treating can show up as intergranular attack, pitting, or cracking in a material.
That’s where corrosion testing comes in to help determine whether a material can resist deterioration due to certain environmental factors.
Mechanical Testing
Like chemical testing, there are various ways a material can be mechanically tested:
- Charpy impact testing involves striking a precisely machined notched specimen with a swinging hammer to measure the energy absorbed during impact. This test helps determine notch sensitivity and impact toughness of material at a range of temperatures.
- Tensile testing reveals the modulus of elasticity, elongation, reduction in area, tensile strength, yield point, yield strength, and more.
- Hardness tests judge the relative hardness of a material.
- Proof load testing secures brazed, welded, or machined assemblies and components in a universal testing machine, where they are subjected to a prescribed or design load in tension or compression. From there, the process may also involve non-destructive testing techniques like magnetic particle inspection, fluorescent penetrant inspection, ultrasonic inspection, or radiography.
- Bend testing checks the ductility and surface integrity of a material by wrapping a sample around a specified mandrel size.
Metallography
Studying the structure of a material using microscopy, metallography uncovers the grade and heat-treated condition, grain size, inclusion content, microconstituents, and phase distribution of a material.
This method can also help assess the quality of wrought, cast, and additive manufactured metal by identifying microcleanliness, chemical segregation, carburization, decarburization, intergranular oxidation, alloy depletion, and eutectic melting.
Weld qualification testing
This weld and brazing procedure and performance qualification testing can include macro sections, micro sections, macro and micro hardness surveys, face bends, root bends, side bends, reduced section tensile testing, Charpy impact testing, ultrasonic inspection, penetrant inspection, visual inspection, magnetic particle inspection, and radiography.
Failure Analysis and Root Cause Investigation
Failure analysis uses a wide scope of tools and techniques to figure out why a material failed. From there, a qualified team recommends steps to prevent recurrence.
Schedule Metallurgy Testing Today
Need to take a closer look at your materials?
Whether you need metallurgy testing as a stand-alone service or alongside non-destructive testing, American Testing Services has you covered from the surface down.
Get to the heart of your materials — contact American Testing Services today to schedule metallurgy testing.