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Home Ā» Archives for Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E.

Michael Pfeifer — Active Contributor

Author of Metals Engineering and Product Reliability articles and Metal Conversations podcast.


This author's archive lists contributions of articles and episodes.

About Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E.

I’m a metallurgical engineer with over 25 years of experience working on product design, quality improvement, failure analysis, and root cause analysis.

Many people think of metallurgists only for failure analysis of component failures. While I do that, I also help design teams with component design. I help select alloys and coatings that have the corrosion, fatigue, wear, and creep properties needed to meet reliability requirements. Oftentimes, trade-offs are required between component form and materials to optimize a design for performance, reliability, and cost. I help do that, too.

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 027 Metal Annealing

MC 027 Metal Annealing

Metal Annealing

in this episode, Michael Pfeifer discusses the recrystallization anneal process and confusion regarding the use of the term anneal.

To learn more about recrystallization annealing check out this video and article .

 


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 026 Phase Diagrams

MC 026 Phase Diagrams

Phase Diagrams

Phase diagrams are graphical representations of the phases present in a particular alloy being held at a particular temperature.Ā  Phase diagrams are used to predict the phase changes that occur in alloys during heating and cooling. This can be during heat treating, casting solidification, joining processes that involve molten metal, and elevated temperature use conditions. This is important because the properties of a metal component depend on the phases present in the metal.

In this episode Michael discusses phase diagrams and their use.

To learn more about phase diagrams check out this video and article.


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 025 Engineering Mistakes, Causes, and Prevention

MC 025 Engineering Mistakes, Causes, and Prevention

Engineering Mistakes, Causes, and Prevention

Engineering and producing a product or structure involves many decisions and actions, and occasionally mistakes are made. Sometimes they are easy to fix and not costly. Other times the mistakes take a great deal of effort and money to fix. Regardless, the general categories of mistakes can be put into two categories – mistakes due to process or procedure errors and mistakes due to ignorance.

In this episode Michael discusses these types of mistakes, their causes, and ways to prevent them from occurring.

To learn more about check out this video and article.


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 024 Supplier Selection

MC 024 Supplier Selection

Supplier Selection

Supplier selection involves many considerations from several different perspectives, such as design engineering, quality engineering, sourcing, finance, and shipping and logistics.

In this episode, Michael discusses supplier selection considerations based on the materials engineering perspective, with a focus on metal stock and metal components.

To learn more about supplier selection from the materials engineering perspective, check out this video and article.

 


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 023 Component Design Process

MC 023 Component Design Process

Component Design Process

Michael discusses a high level view of the component design process from the metals engineering perspective.

To learn more about the component design process, check out this video and these articles on material selection, materials selection and design requirements, and designing optimized components.


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 022 Product Launch Formula

MC 022 Product Launch Formula

Product Launch Formula

In this episode, Michael discusses different aspects of product development, product launch, and post-launch where materials engineering will improve product success.

Developing and launching a product can be stressful – there are many decisions, problems to overcome, and risks to mitigate. While we’d like the process to go smoothly and be able to calmly meet deadlines, this usually is not the case – things we didn’t consider pop up or things that shouldn’t have been a problem become a problem.

Many of the decisions, problems, and risks are associated with the materials used in a product. After all, a product is ultimately an assembly of materials that have been shaped, manipulated, and modified. So, making the effort to engineer the materials will have an impact on product cost, performance, and reliability,
and on manufacturing throughput and quality.

Check this video and article to learn more about successful product development, launch, and improvement.


[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 021 Residual Stress in Metals

MC 021 Residual Stress in Metals

Residual Stress in Metals

In this episode, I discuss residual stress in metals

Ā See this blog post on residual stress to learn more about residual stress

See this blog post on the five concepts to learn more.

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 020 Five Key Metallurgy Concepts

MC 020 Five Key Metallurgy Concepts

Five Key Metallurgy Concepts

In this episode I discuss five key metallurgy concepts that apply to all metals and are necessary to understand to be able to apply metallurgy to
  • Produce stock metal
  • Design and fabricate low-cost, reliable components.
  • Figure out the root cause of component failures and production quality problems.

See this blog post on the five concepts to learn more.

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 019 Two Fundamental Metallurgy Principles

MC 019 Two Fundamental Metallurgy Principles

Two Fundamental Metallurgy Principles

In this episode I discuss the two fundamental principles that are the foundation of metallurgy and metals engineering. See this blog post on two fundamental metallurgy principles to learn more.

 

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 018 Engineering to Prevent Hydrogen Embrittlement

MC 018 Engineering to Prevent Hydrogen Embrittlement

Engineering to Prevent Hydrogen Embrittlement

In this episode I discuss the hydrogen embrittlement mechanism and the engineering steps needed to prevent hydrogen embrittlement of steel fasteners.

See our blog post on hydrogen embrittlement to learn more.

 

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 017 Life (and Engineering) Lessons from Boxing

MC 017 Life (and Engineering) Lessons from Boxing

Life (and Engineering) Lessons from Boxing

In this episode I discuss a lesson I learned from boxing – being purposeful – and how it applies to engineering (and probably other disciplines) and other aspects of life.

 

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. 1 Comment

MC 016 Using Failure Analysis to Improve Equipment Reliability

MC 016 Using Failure Analysis to Improve Equipment Reliability

Using Failure Analysis to Improve Equipment Reliability

In this episode I discuss another failure analysis project I worked on – an equipment reliability problem. This example demonstrates how failure analysis is applied to improve reliability.
I also discuss my motivation for working on failure analyses.

This episode is a complement to articles and podcasts available on the Industrial Metallurgists website.

 

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 015 Definition of Successful Product

MC 015 Definition of Successful Product

Definition of Successful Product

From an engineering perspective, what is a successful product? In this episode I discuss what I think it is and the influence of metals engineering on product success.

I also discuss three new resources for learning about successful component design, designing for reliability, and various metallurgy and metals engineering topics that apply to product design and manufacturing.

Designing Optimized Components

Design for Reliability Course

Short course series: Metallurgy for Successful Products

This episode is a complement to articles and podcasts available on the Industrial Metallurgists website.

 

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 014 Failure Analysis Case Studies

MC 014 Failure Analysis Case Studies

Failure Analysis Case Studies

In this episode I discuss two failure analysis projects I worked on.

This episode is a complement to articles and podcasts available on the Industrial Metallurgists website.

[Read more…]

by Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., P.E. Leave a Comment

MC 013 Product Reliability and Materials Degradation

MC 013 Product Reliability and Materials Degradation

Product Reliability and Materials Degradation

In this episode I discuss product reliability. Reliability refers to the ability of a product to perform as needed for a period of time.
This episode is a complement to an article (Designing for Reliability) and short video presentation (Product Reliability and Materials Engineering) available on the Industrial Metallurgists website.

[Read more…]

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