Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing all the data to identify the cause of a failure and how to prevent it from recurring. It is an important discipline in many industries, such as the electronics industry, petrochemicals industry where it is a vital tool used in the development of new methods & products and for the improvement of existing methods & products. The main principle of failure analysis is a forensic inquiry into the method or product upon the failure. Such inquiry can be conducted using scientific analytical methods such as mechanical, Non-destructive and electrical testing measurements, or through speculative approach when the data is not available but an action has to be taken.

Failure analysis and prevention are important functions to all of the engineering disciplines. The materials engineer often plays an important role in the analysis of failures, whether failure occurs during manufacturing or production processing or component/product fails in service.

Features of root cause failure analysis capabilities include:

	Evaluation of field failures
	Evaluation of life cycle test failure
	Identification of failure mode
	Contamination analysis
	Corrosion and environmental effects
	Photographic documentation
	Broad failure analysis experience
	Fracture evaluations
	Identification of product defects

Spectro’s Failure Analysis reports provide a clear picture of the root cause, and include recommendations to avoid future failures - from component design, through material selection and processing. Over the last few years many such types of evaluations have been performed.