What do you do when you first discover a mechanical failure? Maybe your pipe sprang a leak, a drive shaft snapped, or a welded joint fractured, and you need to find out why. The next steps you take could mean the difference between finding answers and unnecessarily prolonging or ruining the investigation before it has begun. Before you jump in, it's important to take precautions to avoid critical mistakes. Below are 12 things to do after discovering a mechanical failure that should help ensure you preserve key information for understanding what happened.
These steps may not always be practical in "the real world." Personal safety should always be a higher priority. Just remember to be cautious and once safety is no longer an issue, think about some of the steps that are mentioned herein. If nothing else, call in a failure analyst for guidance before you take matters into your own hands. It might save you a whole lot of headaches down the road.
Information from this infographic originally appeared in the article "12 Things to Do After Discovering a Mechanical Failure" written by Neil Burns at Stress Engineering Services and published in the January/February 2018 Issue of Inspectioneering Journal.
Comments and Discussion
There are no comments yet.
Add a Comment
Please log in or register to participate in comments and discussions.