PBE was tasked with testing materials for a client recently. The reason being that there was questionable flaws over the surface of a few bricks. Once we cut these bricks over the flawed areas, we saw severe cross sectional laminations – in all likely hood due to questionable manufacturing. In some bricks laminations went from edge to edge! And in other bricks where nothing was wrong over the surface we found concerning issues internally.
With the manufacturing process appearing compromised, physical attributes was bought into question. The condition of the bricks led one to consider whether CCS and other values was within fair parameters of the data sheet. All said PBE carried out chemical mineralogical and physical tests . (XRF, XRD and HOT M.O.R specifically). The outcome of these tests led us to find that the client did not get what they ordered! Originally we only did XRF but it was not clear on the Mag and Chrome phases we needed to confirm.
When a client orders materials they require a data sheet to get an idea of what they are getting, the designers also need this info. That said; one expects a degree of transparency form suppliers.
With XRD testing we found up to 18.9% amorphous structure, this was a primary motivation for verifying HOT M.O.R. Let me quickly jump to this conclusion. The data sheet supplied and the results differed by up to 47%! The results came back significantly lower than what the client ordered at, not to mention what the designer considered.
Perhaps worth mentioning is the 20% variation of specific mineral ellements in “the same batch” We also found portlandite, less than 1%. Then there was brucite! The same brick (12 bricks were tested) was sent to 2 different labs, once each lab takes what they need for chemical and mineral testing they can carry on. So, we found that within the same brick there was no brucite – and 2.97%.
The concern was further escalated when we saw that the data sheet asks for Chromic Oxide, but all we got was Chromite. It also appeared that instead of a Fused Mag we were dealing with a sintered Mag product. Many questions and back and forth was caused by the test results and assessment, and fortunately we have specialist onboard that verified some of these findings with supporting literature. Point being is that it was further validated that the clients paid for a prime product – and got done in, to put it blunt!
Where does all this leave us. We simply want to do our job and give the client all the information. And hopefully instill a culture of making sure that next time they place an order, they follow due diligence and make sure they get wat they pay for.
In the end the purpose of this article is purely to remind buyers, that they can verify their purchases – best to do it well in advance of planned delivery!
