FALL 2016

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THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
Carmen Vertullo Lead Trainer, Fastener Training Institute®
FASTENER TRAINING INSTITUTE ®
5318 East 2nd Street #325, Long Beach, CA 90803
TEL 562-473-5373 FAX 661-449-3232
EMAIL info@fastenertraining.org WEB www.fastenertraining.org
HYDROGEN EMBRITTLEMENT FASTENER FAILURE
INVESTIGATION – WHAT THE SUPPLIER MUST KNOW
This is the third in a series of Link Magazine articles
on Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) in Fasteners. It would be
a good idea to read, or reread, the previous articles on HE
Risk Management and HE Relief Baking before reading
this article on HE Failure Investigation.
It is never a pleasant experience to be on the receiving
end of a HE failure investigation. As a supplier, you may
be conducting the investigation, your customer or end user
may be conducting the investigation, or some other third
party may be doing it. Regardless of your role, there are
certain things that you should know and do to stay out in
front of the process and help keep your mind at ease.
Any fastener failure or quality issue that causes a
rejection, rework or a recall can be exorbitantly expensive
for the party responsible for the fastener. When it comes
to HE, an actual failure is not necessary to trigger any of
these actions. Simply not processing the parts properly, or
not being able to prove they were processed properly, can
cause your customer to lose confidence in the parts and
demand that they be replaced.
A fastener failure investigation is always more
difficult, time consuming, and less definitive when any of
the parties involved do not have an established Quality
Management System (QMS), or when their systems
do not function well. The effectiveness of the QMS’s
involved becomes readily apparent to the investigator
when requested documentation and process control
instructions are requested. If these requests are met with
speed and completeness, the QMS is probably effective.
If there are delays, missing or incomplete documents, no
organized document retrieval process, or finger pointing
about who is responsible for the documentation; then
TECHNICAL ARTICLE
chances are the QMS is not effective. This does not bode
well for the investigation.
After 25 years of conducting and reviewing fastener
failure investigations I have established a few guidelines
and suggestions that will be useful for the supplier in their
conduct of, participation in, or simply observation of, the
investigation. While these guidelines are meant for HE
failure investigations, many of them apply to any kind of
fastener failure or quality problem.
The Twelve Guidelines for Fastener
Failure Investigation
We will use the word “bolt” or “specimen” to refer
to the item under investigation, but it may be any type of
fastener or component, threaded or not threaded.
[1] IF YOU ARE A SUPPLIER MAKE SURE IT IS
YOUR BOLT - This is actually the first rule of failure
investigation for the fastener supplier. It is not uncommon
for an OEM or MRO to use several sources for the same
exact product. Any particular item may be supplied to
those sources from the same manufacturer or importer,
and even from the same exact lot.
If you cannot tell for sure if it is your bolt or not, or
if you cannot tell what lot it came from, you may want to
look at ways to improve your lot control system. That is a
subject for a future Link Magazine article.
If it is not your bolt, this does not mean that you
cannot help. In fact, this may be an opportunity to
distinguish your company from the competition, especially
if you are among two or more suppliers of the product.
Keep in mind, it is also an opportunity for your competition
to distinguish themselves.
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