Bernhard Of MOA Wrote An Excellent Piece...

.... on steel testing against the background of the scandal with fake test results for steel for US Navy's subs. As a man myself who for years was in charge of testing and certifying composite materials and structures for commercial aviation, I can totally relate to what Bernhard writes. 

There was a life before I started to write about politics at Moon of Alabama. So when a news story comes up that relates back to my previous life as an industrial engineer I will certainly read it and at times even write about it. Here is one of these.

Read the whole piece, it is educational. And yes, while steel needs to be tested in -100 F, I had to perform the testing of some composite structures in special ovens at 150 and 200 F, despite the fact that those parts on B-737 or 777 are actually outside and are subjected primarily to very low temperatures which one encounters at 33, 000 feet in the sky. Yet, here we are, the whole Volume 15.03 of ASTM is dedicated to the exhaustive physical, mechanical and chemical testing. Materials, be them steel, aluminum, composites, silicons, paints, you name it are exhaustively tested for a reason. Especially due to the last 100 years when Material Science (yes, science--a real one) reached an incredible level which allows to "program" and obtain desirable properties of materials allowing safe use of technology made out of those materials under the most adverse conditions. 

The fact that this metallurgist would fake test results especially in the defense programs is down right stupefying. Once you put your QA stamp on the Manufacturing Plan allowing part or material go into production or be shipped to customers (how about Boeing or Bombardier)--you take responsibility for the lives of people who will use it. So, the US subs for years were built from the substandard steel because some QA person decided that testing is "stupid". Just read the piece by Bernhard.