Bolt Failures – Learning from Failure

Even simple components such as bolts, can fail for many reasons. For a root cause analysis (RCA), it’s critical that the failure mode be diagnosed. In fact, for any RCA, one of the first steps is diagnosing the failure mode based upon study of the failed component itself. Or else the RCA may not properly address the true root cause of failure. Although nothing will replace lab-based analysis by experts, several common failure modes to bolts can be recognized by visual examination alone with a bit of training.

The following is a summary of some of the more common causes of bolt failures, methods used to diagnose the failure mode.

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