Failure Analysis for Plastic Parts

Cost: $650.00 USD
Online Registration
CEU's: 2.5
Instructor: Dr. Sylvain Seif

Course Overview

In this course, a comprehensive strategy for finding the root cause of failure in plastics parts will be discussed. Aspects of design, thermal processing, materials, and user-driven failures will be explored through case studies of actual failures in medical, automotive, electronic, and industrial appliance applications. Choosing the right analytical technique for these types of forensic engineering will be a strong focus of the course, with several techniques such as FTIR, SEM and thermal analysis. Moreover, recognizing the importance of ductile-to-brittle transitions and their role in plastic component failure will be elucidated. Expected audience includes design engineers, process engineers, product engineers, rubber compounders, chemists, laboratory managers, R&D scientists, technical service representatives and material suppliers.

Online Course Requirements

We want you to have a great experience participating in our remote (online) courses, and for that, you’ll need the right equipment and internet connection.

Minimum needs are:

• A broadband internet connection that has at least a 2 Mbps upload and download speed.
• A computer (PC or Mac) that can support the latest web browser versions.
• At least 4 GB of RAM and adequate hard drive space.
• A microphone and a speaker.
• International Students: For virtual (online) courses, an additional fee will be assessed to cover the cost of shipping the professional binder (presentation slides), to your address. The cost of international shipping can be significant.

For more information, visit our Online Course Requirements webpage.

Instructor Biography:

Dr. Sylvain Seif has over 15 years of industrial R&D experience in Polymer Engineering, spanning several different areas in the field, and over 12 years of academic teaching experience. He completed a BS in Mechanical Polymer Engineering in 2005 followed by a PhD in Polymer Engineering degree in 2009 from The University of Akron in OH, USA. After graduation, he joined INDEVCO Group, a multinational packaging and consumer goods firm, starting up an R&D Center called “PACT”- Polymer Application Center for Technology- for the entire flexible packaging and compounding divisions of INDEVCO, which consists of 10 manufacturing facilities spread across the globe. He has also taught several engineering courses at the university level, and started R&D collaborations with 5 different universities, refereeing over 30 Masters and Final Year Projects, and being a jury member on all these projects. In 2017, as Senior Technical and R&D Expert at PACT, he helped the INDEVCO R&D Center attain ISO 17025 accreditation for lab testing.

Since 2022, Dr. Seif has been working at an environmentally conscious start-up company, Novoloop, in California, managing the polymer processing lab; having expertise in operating the twin screw compounder, injection molding and co-extrusion cast film machines. Here, he optimized the processing and properties of various durometer TPUs, whereby the polyester polyols are derived from PE recycled waste. He is also very familiar with structure-processing-properties relationships of polymers and their composites, with a strong know-how in lab testing methods for mechanical, rheological, thermal and physical properties. Moreover, Dr. Seif has over 10 academic publications and 3 patents in the polymer field, and has a strong passion for teaching and doing research and development in sustainable solutions.