Testing

Positive Material Identification (PMI)
Positive material identification (PMI) is used to analyse and identify material grade and alloy composition for quality and safety control.
A rapid, non-destructive method, positive material identification is performed on a wide range of components and assets, and provides a semi-quantitative chemical analysis. It is used for both material verification and identification.

PMI can :
• Ensure products/components have been manufactured using the correct alloy
• Find potentially mixed-up alloys
• Identify if the wrong material has been used
• Ensure material conforms to the correct standard and specification (both customer and industry)
• Ensure welded components have used the correct filler material

Intergranular Corrosion (IGC)
Intergranular Corrosion (IGC) or Intergranular Attack (IGA), is an efficient test for screening a material’s corrosion resistance under certain conditions. Using a variety of methods, including ASTM A262, ASTM G28 and ASTM A763, we can provide critical data about the metals corrosion resistance to prevent failures in the field.

Intergranular corrosion refers to material degradation that occurs along the grain boundaries of metallic materials after exposure to a corrosive environment. The sustainability of certain stainless steels to IGC can be influenced by prior thermal processing and welding, which is referred to as sensitization. While the damage may not be immediately visible, intergranular corrosion can cause loss of strength and integrity in a material, resulting in defects or critical failures.

Element’s intergranular corrosion testing helps reveal errors of batches that are incorrectly processed, and highlight any areas where updates are needed.

Chemical Analysis of Metal
Chemical Analysis by GDS provides a fast and relatively inexpensive method for analyzing most aluminum, brass, carbon steel, low alloy steel, cast iron, superalloy, and stainless steel materials. XRF Analysis or EDS Analysis can also be used if there is limited sample size or if elements not covered by GDS are required. We sub-contract for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis on samples that don’t work well with our other methods.

Mechanical Testing of Metal
Tensile properties (ASTM E8) provide useful information about the strength and ductility of a metal. Hardness testing is also useful as it can often be correlated with tensile strength and can be done on smaller samples. There are many hardness scales to choose from depending on sample size, uniformity, and industry practice. Brinell Hardness (ASTM E10) uses the largest sample but is useful for materials which are non-uniform such as cast iron. Rockwell Hardness (ASTM E18) has a range of scales covering a large hardness range and uses less material than Brinell Hardness (ASTM E10). Knoop Microhardness and Vickers Microhardness (ASTM E384) testing can be used when little sample is available or a specific area is to be measured. Plating hardness (ASTM B578) and case depth (SAE J423) measurements are examples of microhardness applications.

Metallographic Testing of Metal
The microstructure of a metal (ASTM E407) can reveal useful information about service history as well as processes such as heat treatment, forming, forging, extrusion, cold rolling, hot rolling, threading, heading, and drawing. If carbon steel is heated until it is bright red then the microstructure can be altered depending on how fast it is cooled. Quench cooling of carbon steel will generate a hard, brittle structure called martensite which can be made less brittle using a heat treating process called tempering. Slow cooling of carbon steel will result in a softer, more ductile structure of ferrite and pearlite. For cast iron samples graphite distribution (ASTM A247) has a large effect on strength if not controlled properly.

Corrosion Resistance Testing
Corrosion resistance is the ability to prevent environmental deterioration by chemical or electro-chemical reaction. Desirable characteristics of corrosion-resistant alloys, therefore, include high resistance to overall reactions within the specific environment.
Salt spray testing is an accelerated corrosion test that produces a corrosive attack to coated samples in order to evaluate (mostly comparatively) the suitability of the coating for use as a protective finish. The appearance of corrosion products (rust or other oxides) is evaluated after a pre-determined period of time. Test duration depends on the corrosion resistance of the coating; generally, the more corrosion resistant the coating is, the longer the period of testing before the appearance of corrosion or rust.
ASTM B117 was the first internationally recognized salt spray standard, originally published in 1939. Other important relevant standards are ISO 9227, JIS Z 2371 and ASTM G85.

Non-Destructive Testing
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a method used to identify any defects/ discontinuities in a product superficially or internally caused in course of its production cycle – cutting/ grinding/ welding etc. This is a detailed inspection and is done insuch way that the original part of the product is not damaged. Few ways of NDT are Acoustic emission testing, Laser testing, Leak proof testing, Hardness testing, Liquid / Dye penetrant inspection, optical microscopy, resonant inspection etc..

MILL TEST CERTIFICATE
A mill test report (MTR) and often also called a certified mill test report, certified material test report, mill test certificate (MTC), inspection certificate, certificate of test, or a host of other names, is a quality assurance document used in the metals industry that certifies a material’s chemical and physical properties and states a product made of metal (steel, aluminum, brass or other alloys) complies with an international standards organization (such as ANSI, ASME, etc.) specific standards.
Mill here refers to an industry which manufactures and processes raw materials.
There are mainly two types of MTC in steel industry, as for steel plates or steel pipes, there must be specific inspection scope or lists:
MTC EN 10204 3.1 : MTC 3.1 is issued by the manufacturer in which they declare that the products supplied are in compliance with the requirements of the order and in which they supply test results. This is the most common MTC in steel industry, when there is no extra requirement of customer for TPI inspection and witness of production and inspection of tests.
MTC EN 10204 3.2 : MTC 3.2 refers to the report prepared by both the manufacturer’s authorized inspection representative, independent of the manufacturing department and either the purchaser’s authorized inspection representative or the inspector designated by the official regulations and in which they declare that the products supplied are in compliance with the requirements of the order and in which test results are supplied.

Sample Inspection Report