Call us at (804) 967-9129 or contact us via email for your initial consultation with Jerry Davis, President of DMME, Inc. We will briefly review your needs and opportunities at no cost to you.

DMME provides engineering assistance to attorneys handling product liability and personal injury cases where there are important questions in the areas of metallurgy, corrosion and/or mechanical design. Our assignments in these cases typically are to establish the physical cause of the accident or failure and to provide other engineering input to the retaining attorney as requested.

We work with attorneys that represent defendants as well as those that represent plaintiffs. After a thorough review of all available evidence, we provide conclusions and our best estimate of the engineering merits and weaknesses of the retaining attorney’s case and, to the extent possible, we supply the same information on the opposing counsel’s case.

If the retaining attorney chooses to name us as an expert witness we give sworn testimony on our findings and opinions in a deposition and at trial.

Back to top >

We complete root-cause failure analyses for a variety of industrial and manufacturing organizations as well certain government agencies – in the areas of our knowledge and experience. The objective in these assignments is to establish the fundamental reason, i.e., the root cause, as well as the secondary, contributing factors that produced the failure. The goal of the analysis is to present the client with the opportunity to prevent a reoccurrence of the failure by taking one or more corrective actions to obtain future, reliable operations.

Our written failure analysis report provides conclusions on the root cause, the contributing factors and provides specific recommendations for actions to prevent or minimize the probability of a reoccurrence. Depending on the particulars of the given situation, the corrective recommendations may address any of several areas. For example, they could relate to the mechanical design and specified details of the failed part; the metal alloy selected; the possibility of modifications in the operating environment or procedures; the quality control being used during manufacture of the part or material or the maintenance procedures being used in service. Each situation is different.

A thorough root-cause failure analysis can represent a substantial savings for an organization particularly when compared to the cost of the traditional approach of “fix or replace it when it breaks” without finding out why the failure occurred and without establishing the best indicated corrections. This is particularly true for continuous operating plants where shutdown time is costly or in systems where a failure presents a severe safety hazard.

Back to top >

Well informed decisions on choices of materials and design details can have significant, positive effects on the reliability and ultimately the profitability or safety in many applications. This is especially true if these choices are made during the initial design phase of the product or system rather than after an in-service failure has occurred. We provide this service to a variety of clients that may not want to depend on “standard” or handbook recommendations for demanding applications. A qualified outside party such as DMME often can bring a fresh perspective to such decisions and provide very useful input.

Assistance with selecting the specific alloy for a severe service environment or suggestions on using an overlooked option can make a big difference in the reliability and cost-effectiveness of a material selection. An example of the latter is use of plain carbon steel plate (for low cost and strength) under a thin, metallurgically bonded high alloy (expensive but corrosion resistant) sheet. This combination is often much better than either a plate of solid carbon steel or a solid plate of the high alloy. In the same way, careful attention to the most likely failure mode in a given service and the possible steps to address it can be very important. For example, if wear is likely to be a problem in an application then equipment alignment, mechanical fits and a case hardening specification should all be considered.

Back to top >

We provide focused, on-site training for clients interested in having their personnel better informed about particular engineering material usage, inspection or problem-solving topics. This interest may relate to federal compliance issues, e.g., the requirements of Standard 29 CFR, 1910, “ Process Safety Management”, or to prepare personnel to better recognize potential safety and critical equipment issues and thus address them proactively rather than after a costly failure. The information is developed and delivered in close consultation with the client management so as to target the specific needs of the organization and personnel to be trained.

Examples of training topics that may be delivered include –

• Basic principles of metallurgy & heat treatment
• Overview of the several forms of corrosion and their control
• Recognizing and controlling common welding problems
• Design & fabrication details that support quality coating application
• Basics of good mechanical design
• Characteristics of common metal failure modes and corrective actions

Back to top >

Sometimes the best (or only) way to evaluate the performance of a material or component is to see it on-site while the normally operating equipment or facility is shutdown for maintenance or it is otherwise available for inspection. DMME provides this service. Generally the procedure is to visually inspect and record the current condition of the equipment and then compare those findings to either past inspection records or to the original drawings or specifications. The overall objectives are to judge the fitness-for-service of the equipment or facility and to gain information about what corrective actions – if indicated – are practical. At the client’s discretion, this inspection may be jointly done with his own personnel and/or with a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) contractor while he is using special inspection and recording instruments. It is often productive to have an experienced and objective outside materials engineer on hand to see problems up close and offer his input along with that of in-house personnel and other contractors.

We have considerable experience in inspecting and evaluating a variety of equipment and physical facilities. These include above and below ground steel piping systems; ASME Code-built pressure vessels, shell & tube heat exchangers, atmospheric-pressure storage tanks, fire protection sprinkler piping, high temperature water wall tubing in large steam boilers, corrosion on bare and coated structural steel, copper and plastic plumbing systems, and corrosion on coated automotive vehicles.

Back to top >