FAPC provides forensic support for litigation involving plastic product liability. Litigation support includes:
Case Assessment � Site inspection, a non-destructive product evaluation, and interviews provide a preliminary opinion about the cause of failure.
Testing Protocol � A detailed testing protocol for both exemplar and failed parts will be designed. The results of the testing will be used to generate various types of data about potential contaminants, stresses, fracture surfaces, materials used, processing conditions, and other mechanisms of failure.
Data Interpretation � We will tell you what the data really means in plain terms that can be understood by a jury.
Opinion � We document our professional findings in an expert opinion.
Depositions and Testimony � We stand behind our opinion with deposition and court testimony.
Products can fail to provide the intended level of performance over their design life. This can fall into many categories such as premature wear, excessive creep and deflection, long term deterioration due to weathering, UV yellowing, part cracking due to inappropriate design or incompatible chemicals, etc.
Expert Witness � FAPC provides forensic support for litigation involving plastic product liability. Litigation support includes case assessment, setting up testing protocols, data interpretation, writing opinions, depositions and testimony.
Laboratory Equipment Utilization � FAPC has state of the art laboratory equipment available to analyze plastics surfaces for contaminants, the fracture mechanics of cracks, polymer degradation, and a host of other causes of product liability.
Solutions � We typically make recommendations that will rectify deficiencies in a product�s performance. This could be material, design or processing based.
Stress / Fracture Plastic sprinkler down pipes in new condominiums broke shorty after completion of the building causing extensive flooding. Assesment of the broken pipe fracture mechanics indicated failure due to high pressure inside the pipe. Only down pipes failed. FAPC showed that the pipes had frozen after pressure testing (before heat was installed in the building) because water was trapped in the down pipes when the rest of the system had been drained. Over time the crack propogated through the wall of the pipe to the exterior surface and resulted in catastrophic failure.
Chemical Attack Toilet valve failure resulted in subsequent flooding of a penthouse suite along with 5 floors of businesses below. FAPC was able to use laboratory testing data to show that residue on the crack surface, as well as elsewhere on the part indicated that excessively high levels of chlorinated toilet tank cleaners were used in spite of warnings on the cleaner packaging and recently installed valve carton.
Product Design / Inappropriate Polymer A brass part was converted to plastic with subsequent failure. FAPC was able to show that the new part had been produced without making design changes to wall sections, reducing stress risers or redesigning the part for polymers. In addition a polymer with high notch sensitivity was selected for fabrication. Recommendations for redesign, material selection, and improvements to the mold filling arrangement were generated.
