Since 1945, NSL Analytical has been relied upon as not only a provider of material testing and analysis, but also as a thought leader in our industry. Part of this responsibility includes curating content that may be useful, educational, or beneficial for other businesses and professionals. As part of this initiative, we’d like to share a fascinating study…

While X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy provides quantitative elemental composition of materials, it cannot distinguish between identical atoms in different crystalline phase arrangements. However, we can confirm both the elemental and phase content of ceramic materials with certainty by combining XRF analysis with powder X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Watch this webinar from NSL Analytical Services and Rigaku, a leader…

The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Dauphin County, PA partially melted down on March 28, 1979. It was the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history and was a significant turning point in the global development of nuclear power. Watch this “Famous Failures” webinar from NSL to learn about the accident and how investigators used…

Even very low levels of moisture can have significant impacts on metal powder flow, consolidation and surface oxidation, particularly during powder reuse. In this webinar, we examine how Karl Fischer titration is applied to precise moisture analysis in metal powders for additive manufacturing. Although several techniques can be applied to the measurement of water in…

Hydrogen embrittlement can cause a part to fail under stresses well below the expected material strength. Plus, the phenomenon is virtually undetectable using current NDE techniques. In this “Famous Failures” webinar, NSL metallurgists Rebecca Stawovy and Ben Schmidt explore a Bell 222U Helicopter failure that occurred due to hydrogen embrittlement. They discuss which conditions can…

Fatigue has always been a major issue in designing for transportation, particularly airplanes. This webinar presented three airplane failures from NTSB and British Ministry reports that were the result of fatigue: the DeHavilland Comets in 1954, Aloha 243 in 1988, and Southwest 1380 in 2018. It also included a brief discussion of fatigue and a…

In this second installation of our Famous Failures webinar series, attendees learned about the role of heat in the failure of the steel in the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001. This webinar featured Dave Kovarik, NSL Metallurgist and Failure Analyst, George Vander Voort, president of Vander Voort Consulting with 29 years of…

At NSL, we are honored to have our article “How Metal Powder Surface Area Influences Additive Manufacturing” published in Powder Metallurgy Review Magazine. The article explains why the knowledge of powder surface area is a critical parameter in the metal Additive Manufacturing process. Learn more about wet chemistry in the highly-respected publication below. Then, contact…

Stress corrosion cracking is a progressive cracking mechanism that can often lead to catastrophic failure. There have been several notable failures due to this phenomenon, such as the collapse of the Silver Bridge in December of 1967. Learn about this failure in the first webinar of our “Famous Failures” series, as well as the metallurgy…