Rubber and Plastics Failure Analysis: Physical and Chemical Analysis Techniques

Cost: $900.00 USD
Online Registration
CEU's: 0.8
Instructor: Dr. Erol Sancaktar

Course Overview

This 1-day course is intended for design engineers, process engineers, product engineers, rubber compounders, chemists, laboratory managers, R&D scientists, technical service representatives and material suppliers looking to expand their knowledge and skill set related to testing and analysis, including what tests or analyses are required and/or desiring better understanding of the significance and interpretation of laboratory results. Limited plastic design experience (very little to none) and low knowledge of tool design should be sufficient to benefit from this course. The course covers ASTM and related testing methods including tensile testing, abrasion testing, compression set and stress relaxation tests, impact tests, and the like. Predictive methods such as Arrhenius and SN methods are discussed. Analytical and instrumental methods covered include: polymer identification by simple wet chemistry methods as well as more advanced methods such as FTIR, state of cure analysis, microbeam analysis methods, and chromatographic methods. The course presents case studies involving a broad range of rubber and plastic products with ozone failures, stress cracking, impact failures, fatigue failures, chemical degradation as well as errors in material selection. The discussions include relevant physical and chemical techniques, the rationale for the techniques selected, and the outcomes.

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. Erol Sancaktar received his Ph.D. (Eng. Mechanics) and M.S. (Mech. Eng.) degrees from Virginia Tech. He is a Fellow of ASME and has served as Chair of ASME Tech. Committee on Reliability Stress Analysis, and Failure Prevention (1997-2008, 2013-present). He served as Associate Editor for the ASME J. Mech. Design (1995-2006) and Medical Devices (2006-2013). He was a faculty member at the Mechanical Eng. Dept. at Clarkson University during 1978 to 1996 before joining Univ. Akron in 1996 as Professor of Polymer Eng. He was also appointed Professor of Mechanical Eng. in 2009. Dr. Sancaktar currently holds the title, Professor Emeritus at the University of Akron’s School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering (since August 2020). Prof. Sancaktar edited 25 books and Journal Special Issues, authored 111 refereed journal articles, 30 articles in books edited by others, including 2 chapters in ASM Engineered Materials Handbook, as well as two chapters in Handbook of Adhesion Technology by Springer. He delivered 244 technical presentations and has 4 patents. Dr. Sancaktar organized 30 Conferences.

Dr. Sancaktar served in 15 different Federal Government review panels and served as reviewer for numerous scientific research proposals, journal articles and books. He had over 18 consulting assignments, sabbatical and extended visits with various government agencies (i.e., NASA, U.S. Army), industrial establishments (Kendall Co., Chrysler Corp.), foundations and legal agencies, not counting one-day consulting/advising visits. Among these expert services was an over-billion-dollar case and expert witness testimony at the U.S. International Trade Commission (2017).

Prof. Sancaktar and co-workers obtained ~ $4M Research and Grant support with 56 projects during 1980-2022. These include 8 National Science Foundation grants (~ $1.1M and spanning over 25 years), 3 Teaching Grants and 20 projects sponsored by Industry.