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As Mr. Blank towed his wood chipper behind his step-van, his
trailer hitch broke free from the undercarriage of his step-van. The chipper crashed into the back of the
step-van, punctured the gas tank, and started a fire.
We performed detailed non-destructive & destructive
testing of the failed trailer hitch. We
took metallographic sections of the various welds, examined their composition,
and performed hardness traces. We
determined that the original support structure for the hitch had been altered,
that the welds had failed progressively over several years, and the final failure
was a sudden tear through the remaining base metal.
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