FAILURE ANALYSIS AND FAILURE PREVENTION OF A FLOATING DEVICE

摘要

Saving keys that dropped in water is possible with a device to which keys are attached. It has a built-in float, which is activated when the product drops in water. The float launches itself up on a line of about 12m and appears back on the surface. The float is snap-fitted in the inner housing of the product and has a little sponge between the case and the float. When the device drops in water, the force exerted by the wetted sponge should be sufficient to disconnect the snap-fit assembly. The device is shown in Figure 1. Major mistakes have been made in design and material selection: a very stiff snap-fit construction and Nylon 6 as material for the float. Problems with the device arose, shortly after the developer had sold his company after a successful introduction during a water sport exhibition. The first summer after the transfer of the company was very humid and hot. When tests were carried out during the summer the majority of the floats could not be pushed out the inner housing. This was the reason for a civil court case, which lasted two years. The situation with the device was so complicated for the judge that he asked me as an expert witness to assemble a few products. I had to do this with both parties and I was completely free to determine the testing of the products in order to determine if the device was reliable enough. The paper describes all the analysis work for determining the reliability. It also describes how failure could be prevented by selecting a material that absorbs less moisture than Nylon 6 and by decreasing the stiffness of the snap-fit construction.