When a component fails, the instinct of every good operations team is to fix it and restart. That instinct is exactly what destroys failure investigations. The evidence that explains a failure is fragile: it can be wire-brushed off, cut through, rusted away or simply thrown in a skip — usually within the first day. What you preserve in those first 24 hours largely decides whether the eventual answer is confident or bounded.
Keep the part — all of it
Retain the failed component and every piece of it, including fragments and debris. Both halves of a broken part matter: fracture surfaces are read as matching pairs, and the half that looks "less interesting" often carries the initiation site. Keep associated hardware too — the bolts from the failed flange, the bearing from the seized shaft — because failures are rarely confined to the part that finally let go.
Do not clean anything
Deposits, corrosion products, oil and process residues on a fracture surface are evidence, not dirt. They date the crack, identify the environment and often distinguish one mechanism from another. Cleaning, wire-brushing, pressure-washing or acid-dipping a fracture surface can erase the very features the investigation needs. Why cleaning destroys evidence →
Photograph in place, before removal
Before anything is moved, photograph:
- The failed component in position, from multiple angles, with something for scale.
- The surrounding context — supports, connections, adjacent damage, leaked product.
- Any fracture faces, as found, before any handling.
- Nameplates, markings and identification numbers.
Phone photographs are fine; taken-before-disturbance beats perfect-but-late every time.
Protect the fracture surfaces
Do not touch fracture faces with fingers, do not fit the halves back together ("just to see"), and do not let them rub in transport. Fitting mating faces together bruises the fine features fractography reads. Wrap surfaces in clean, dry material; for steel at risk of rusting, a light coat of clean oil on the fracture only after photography is acceptable if transport will take time — note that it was applied.
Capture the history while people remember
- What happened, and exactly when — with the timeline of alarms, trips and observations.
- Operating conditions before the event: loads, temperatures, pressures, chemistry, recent excursions.
- Maintenance history: last inspection, recent work on or near the component.
- Any earlier failures of the same or similar parts.
Memories fade and shift within days; a rough note written today outweighs a polished recollection next month.
If you must cut
Sometimes a section must be cut out to release the line or free the equipment. If so: cut far from the failure, never through or near a fracture or crack; mark the orientation and position of every cut piece; and photograph before and after cutting. Tell the investigator what was cut and how — heat from flame cutting alters nearby microstructure, and knowing where that influence ends matters.
When to contact MTIS
Ideally: before anything is cleaned, cut or moved. A short call at that moment lets us tell you exactly what to keep for your specific failure — it costs nothing and often saves the investigation. If the part is already cleaned or partially lost, contact us anyway: bounded answers from imperfect evidence are our normal work, and we will tell you honestly what can still be established. Start a job request → or see how a failure investigation works →.