On-site inspection at a steam turbine
Source: BAM
The clarification of technical failure and its causes is essential for damage prevention and indispensable for a successful, sustainable economy.
Since its foundation 150 years ago, BAM has been involved in the analysis and clarification of damage. For this purpose, it has created a committee for interdisciplinary damage analysis (iSA). BAM's iSA brings together the necessary competences and analysis methods from up to 30 specialist areas for a project, as required, irrespective of department and subject area. BAM has a unique position due to its formal independence and economic neutrality, its interdisciplinarity and its form as a higher Federal authority. This allows for neutral failure analysis and damage assessments without regard to the client(s). BAM can therefore have a balancing effect via jointly commissioned arbitration or court expert opinions and is therefore highly respected. The iSA is thus the competence centre for failure analysis and damage prevention.
BAM's iSA becomes active in every case if at least one of the following criteria is present in a case of damage:
- Public-technical safety according to the BAM Guideline "Safety in Technology and Chemistry" is affected.
- More than two BAM departments are required to process the case of damage.
- It is an arbitrator's report or a report jointly commissioned by several clients, in any case not a private report of a single company or a party report.
- It is a matter of a public client or authorities, e.g. Maritime Authority (Seeamt), Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrtbundesamt), the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) or public prosecution offices and courts.
However, the purpose of failure analysis is above all to learn from technical failures and thus to prevent them. Failure analysis is therefore an indispensable building block for safety in technology and chemistry.
Failure analysis and damage prevention - examples from practice