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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5
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EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Jaimie Tiley, Chair, U.S. Air Force Research Lab
Somuri Prasad, Vice Chair, Sandia National Lab
Yu-Ping Yang, Past Chair, EWI
Ellen Cerreta, Board Liaison, Los Alamos
National Lab
Steven Claves, Alcoa Technical Center
Mario Epler, Carpenter Technology Corp.
Adam Farrow, Los Alamos National Lab
Nia Harrison, Ford Motor Co.
Yaakov Idell, NIST
John Shingledecker, EPRI
Kumar Sridharan, University of Wisconsin
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Iver Anderson
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Mitchell Dorfman
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Zi-Kui Liu
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F AIL! If our October cover didn’t grab your attention,
we’re not sure what will. I suppose you could say that
our fall issue celebrates failure. This special edition—
with bonus distribution at both the ISTFA and Heat Treat con-
ferences—focuses on nondestructive testing and failure anal-
ysis. With that in mind, we present an issue jam-packed with
case studies and timely technical advice exploring various
industrial failures,
electronics challenges, and methods to
avoid them.
The idea is that nobody wants to
be blamed when things go wrong, but
an entire industry is built around the
very fact that things often do. From
engineered pins to furnace rolls to aerospace electronics, a lot of creativity has
been unleashed around avoiding costly mistakes. In fact, our friends at EWI de-
veloped an entirely new design and welding process that promises to extend the
life of furnace rolls in hot-dip coating lines, which often go bad in less than a year.
Now that’s real progress, and it’s just the type of innovation that stems from a
frustrating failure. If things went smoothly all the time, it’s pretty clear that im-
provements would not be mandatory and the status quo could exist indefinitely.
It’s yet another take on the theme of necessity being the mother of invention.
Perhaps trickiest of all are the electronics failures. Consider this statement
from our colleagues at EAG in their excellent article on aerospace electronics:
“As advanced semiconductor processes enable more compact devices to be cre-
ated from smaller structures, even those that appear flawless can still exhibit
performance problems arising from as little as one misplaced atom.” Seriously?!
One misplaced atom? If this daunting thought makes you feel like throwing your
hands up, we can assure you that you’re not alone. Fortunately, highly sophis-
ticated testing equipment and new analytical methods are being developed to
keep pace with today’s miniaturized systems.
In addition, attending industry conferences is another way to keep up with
technology advancements. Hopefully, many of you reading this column will have
the chance to visit ISTFA, the 41st annual International Symposium for Testing
and Failure Analysis. This year’s program features more than 100 technical pre-
sentations on the latest research involving failure analysis of microelectronics.
Technical symposia, user groups, tutorials, and a comprehensive equipment ex-
position offer a great chance to learn about industry developments and network
with colleagues. Be sure to check out our show preview included in this issue.
Besides ISTFA, Heat Treat 2015 is also taking place this month, from Octo-
ber 20–22 in Detroit. Every other year, the Heat Treating Society’s premier con-
ference and exposition provides an opportunity to learn about some of the latest
trends in the industry to stay at the leading edge of heat treating-related tech-
nology. We hope to see you there!
In the meantime, we hope you savor and celebrate your successes, but also
keep in mind the amazing opportunities and innovations that can arise from
failures.
WELCOMING FAILURE
“Success is not final,
failure is not fatal. It is the courage
to continue that counts.”
– Attributed to Winston Churchill