May 2010 | Failure Analysis and Prevention Special Interest Group | Society of Plastics Engineers

First FAPSIG News Letter

Letter from the Chair I welcome you to the first newsletter of the Failure Analysis and Prevention Special

Interest Group (FAPSIG) of the Society of Plastics Engineers. It is my hope that the

newsletter will be published two times per year to keep engineers informed of

activities involving the FAPSIG. These include current and upcoming events, resources

to answer questions, and new technologies. I encourage readers to give feedback, and

contribute ideas and articles for the newsletter.

As we move into 2010, the whispers of a recovery are echoing across many industries.

While failures of plastics are essentially immune to a recession, now is the time for

companies to look more closely at preventive measures. There are several resources

and upcoming events to assist you with this. Perhaps the best place to learn about the

latest techniques on failure analysis and prevention is the Annual Technical Conference

(ANTEC) for the Society of Plastics Engineers. This conference will be held in Orlando,

Florida from May 16-20th

, 2010 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort &

Convention Center. The conference will have over 600 technical papers related to

plastics. FAPSIG will have sessions running all day Monday and Tuesday, plus

Wednesday morning. Some sessions are collaborations between FAPSIG and the

Medical Plastics Division and the Plastic Pipe SIG. Another resource at ANTEC will be

the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Consultant's Corner. Jeff Jansen of Stork

Technimet and I will be volunteering at this booth to answer questions on failure

analysis and prevention. Jeff Jansen will also be the instructor for the Plastic

Component Failure Analysis: Methodology, Mechanism, and Case Studies seminar held

on Thursday, May 20th

. The schedule of ANTEC talks can be found at:

http://www.4spe.org/sites/default/files/antec10-finalprogram.pdf

Probably your best resources are listed at the back of this newsletter. It is a list of your

board members. They are all highly trained individuals with many years of experience. I

encourage you to contact any one of them with your questions or concerns.

I hope to see you in Orlando.

Contents

Letter from the Chair 1

Gift Cards to be given at ANTEC 2

Finalist for 2010 Best Paper 2

FAPSIG Session at ANTEC 2010 3

FAPSIG Board Meeting 3

Sponsorship Opportunities 3

Minutes from 2009 Meeting 4

FAPSIG Board Members 5

Issue 1

Paul J. Gramann, Ph.D.

The Madison Group

Chair – Failure Analysis and Prevention SIG

Hoffman, et al. Receive Best Paper

Award

Starbucks Gift Cards to be Given Out at ANTEC

2

Dr. Jennifer Hoffman and her co-authors Dr. Maureen Reitman,

Dr. Suresh Donthu, Paul Ledwith and Dave Wills of Exponent, Inc.

received the 2009 Best Paper Award for the Failure Analysis and

Prevention Special Interest Group at SPE’s Annual Technical

Conference held in Chicago, IL. The title of the paper was

“Microscopic Characterization of CPVC Failure Modes.”

The paper showed failure surfaces of CPVC pipes subjected to

various loading conditions including impact, burst/overload and

environmental stress cracking.

Three Papers in Running

for Best Paper Award

Finalist for the 2010 SPE ANTEC Failure

Analysis and Prevention Special Interest

Group (FAPSIG) Best Paper Award have

been announced. Chosen by a panel of

reviewers, the papers are:

“Failure Analysis of Hinged Housing

Assemblies,” By Jeff Jansen

“A Discussion on Prevention of Plastic

Product Failure,” by Andy Shah

“Temperature Effects on Slow Crack

Growth in Pipe Greade PE ,” by Zhenwen

Zhou, et al.

The best paper will be announced on

Monday, May 17th

, 2010 at the ANTEC

conference. A plaque will be presented to

the winner.

“the hydrostatic burst pipe exhibited significant crack bifurcation, a pattern typically observed

in CPVC pipe tested under similar conditions.” Jennifer Hoffman, et al.

The Failure Analysis and Special Interest Group (FAPSIG) over the past several years has

provided snacks and beverages during sessions of ANTEC. This year $5 Starbuck gift

cards will be given out during various FAPSIG sessions. The number of cards will be

limited and will be given out randomly. The hotel hosting this year’s ANTEC has a

Starbucks located in its lobby. So use your gift card to grab a coffee and pastry that you

can enjoy during a FAPSIG session.

This is possible because of the generosity of this year’s FAPSIG ANTEC Sponsors:

FAPSIG Sessions at ANTEC 2010

Sponsorship If your company would be interested in sponsoring the FAPSIG

newsletter and/or ANTEC session please contact Jeff Jansen at

Stork Technimet or Paul Gramann at The Madison Group.

Sponsorship gives you company good exposure while advancing

the educational objectives of the FAPSIG in failure analysis and

prevention of plastic parts.

2 2

The Failure Analysis and Prevention Special Interest Group (FAPSIG) received the

highest number of papers in recent years. Papers will be presented during the

following sessions:

Monday, May 17th

: M10 and M25

Tuesday, May 18th

: T8, T24 and T25

Wednesday, May 19th

: W5

FAPSIG will collaborate with the Medical Plastics Division on a session during the

afternoon of Tuesday, May 18th

. FAPSIG will collaborate with the Plastic Pipe and

Fittings SIG on a different session during this same time. The FAPSIG will again hold a

tutorial session, which will take place during the morning session of Wednesday, May

19th

. The tutorial session is a more open format where questions are encouraged

during the tutorial presentation. Vikram Bhargava of Motorola, Jeff Jansen of Stork

Technimet and Michael Sepe of The Material Analyst will be giving tutorials.

http://www.4spe.org/conferences/antec-2010

FAPSIG Board Meeting

The Failure Analysis and Prevention Special

Interest Group (FAPSIG) will hold a

business meeting at ANTEC on Monday,

May 17th

following the afternoon session.

The meeting will be held in the same room

the FAPSIG papers will be presented. The

meeting will serve as a directive for the

group over the next year. Some of the

topics that will be discussed will include:

* ANTEC 2011 in Boston

* Upcoming Newsletters

* Sponsorship

* Current Financial State of Group

* Gift Card Give Away

*Ideas for FAPSIG to Communicate to

Members: TOPCON, Webinars,

Newsletters.

If you have a specific topic that you would

like included in the agenda please contact

Paul Gramann at paul@madisongroup.com

Minutes from ANTEC 2009 Meeting

June 22, 2009

Roll Call

• Present

o Paul Gramann - Chair

o Jeff Jansen - Past Chair

o Dale Edwards - TPC

o Jackie Rehkopf - Treasurer

o Jennifer Hoffman - Secretary

o Andy Shah - TPC elect

o Antoine Rios - Publicity Chair

o Javier Cruz - Education

o Mike Ezrin - Emeritus

o Don Duvall - Past Chair, Membership Committee Chair

o Tricia McKnight - SPE Manager, Leadership Services

• Interested in Getting Involved:

o Jan Spoormaker (Spoormaker Consultancy)

o Maureen Reitman (Exponent, Inc.)- helping on committees, reviewing papers

o Brian Ralston (Exponent, Inc.)- getting involved (no preferences)

o Erin Riddick (M. Holland Company)- serve on committees

Introduction (Paul G. and Jeff J.) - encouraged Board to contribute ideas, opinions

Financial Status

• Transition to new Treasurer (no update on financials)

• Received $2,100 in sponsorship- portion used to purchase food for 3 events (Failure Panel and 2 tutorial sessions) and the Best Paper Award

• Money left over for next year!

ANTEC Feedback on FAP SIG Events

• FA Expert Panel

o 30-40 attendees (fairly well attended, but seems like less than last year)

o 1 hr and 45 min duration

o Len Czuba brought failed parts

o Jan Spoormaker brought overhead slides to present case for discussion

• Paper Presentations

o ~40 attendees each for Ezrin and Hanks

o 15-25 attendees in morning sessions

• More attendees last year in Milwaukee? (need head count from Tricia to confirm)

Should the open panel be held next year?

• Jeff J.- should keep it going

• Maureen- great forum to bring in new members

• Mike E.- thinks it is good to have a variety of people on the panel, people come because they want to solve problems

• TPC responsible to make the panel an event

Publicity

• Membership in FAP SIG is huge- no cost to members

• Don D. will contact Tricia to identify members, after SPE headquarter move is complete

• Publicity for FA panel via e-mail blast and SPE publications

• Jeff J. assigned to Website Chair by Paul G.

• Put best paper on newsletter or on SPE website?

• Don D.-SPE links PDF version of newsletters to website (link shows up in e-mail blast)

• Suggested content of newsletters- letter from chair, news from headquarters, treasurer’s report, minutes from meeting, best paper, call for papers,

general summary of ANTEC sessions with photos, access to tutorial presentations? (Mike E.), standards update

• Suggested sending newsletters in Summer 2009 and Spring 2010 (re: upcoming ANTEC)

Tutorial session next year?

• Feedback from e-mail blast via e-mail or phone calls asking how to attend/register for tutorials- good feedback so far with tutorial session

• Paul G. – Vendors to give tutorials? (e.g. FTIR by Thermo Electron)

• Mike E. – We may be too ambitious with panel, tutorials, and papers. Tutorials should be given by recognized authorities.

ANTEC 2010

• Henk B. and Jeff J. in charge of identifying sponsors

• Do we continue to purchase snacks and drinks? Need to look at venue-specific costs and weigh against how much we want to be spending

Collaborate with University of Wisconsin Plastics Conference

• UW wants to include track on topic of failure and for our SIG to present papers

• SIG will receive $$ from UW for the collaboration

• Mike E. - Are we in danger of losing talks to this conference? Will we be competing?

• Don D. – suggested holding tutorials at UW conference and saving papers for ANTEC

• Milwaukee section of SPE to participate?

• Mike E. - We should focus on making FAPSIG as strong as possible. Participation in conference may weaken our group.

Other Topics

• Upcoming conferences

o Eurotech 2011 (Barcelona) - Jan S. is in charge of Design and Failure Analysis

o Asia SPE 2010 (Tokyo) - 200-300 people, major Asian companies attend

• Interest in “Prevention” side of FAP

o Prevention session at ANTEC next year?

o Overlap with Design Division

o Contact FA journals re: potential speakers and collaboration

• A. Rios – What can we do to get more university/academic presentations?

• E-mail blast in July to invite Asian and European members to contribute

Adjourn

Failure Analysis and Special Interest Group Board Members

5