AUTOMOTIVE & AVIATION

The automotive and the aerospace industries are amongst the largest in the world. Failure in any mode of transport often results in serious injuries or fatalities and therefore minimising any cause of failure is the driving force behind safety. Fortunately, some accidents are not serious but require investigation where component failure is the cause.

Approximately, over 70 million cars are produced in the world every year. It takes 30, 000 parts to make a passenger car, which makes eliminating the chance of component failure a major priority for manufacturers. Automotive component failure can be caused by several modes of failure with fatigue being a major contributory factor.

Aviation component failure carries a very large propensity to cause loss of life or serious injury which is why regulatory bodies have strict safety protocols. There is close to 2500 planes manufactured each year throughout the world. When an accident occurs, a major investigation begins in earnest. The elimination of potential failure as well as the cost in maintenance is a big concern.    

Dwan Forensic Engineering carry out failure analysis and fracture investigation of components in the aerospace and automotive industries ranging from drive shafts, gears, pinions to hydraulic systems failure. It is imperative that the root cause of failure is achieved so that we can recommend corrective action and reduce future failures.  

We provide expert witness testimony and court representation where litigation is a requirement, both at home and abroad and we deliver reports which assists the client to achieve a successful outcome. Fatigue and fracture assessment can also be used to determine defect tolerance and expected life using various assessment standards. Within the aviation sector, Dwan Forensic Engineering have successfully helped a major operator to decrease substantial maintenance costs by challenging and investigating the OEM regulations in a failure investigation.

Case Study

Strict corrosion survey in need of forensic analysis.

Re-evaluating the excessive parameters of gear hub corrosion surveys for a major European airline.

European Airline