Reprint from China Fastener World Magazine, Vol. 51

If you are in the fastener industry long enough you will eventually experience first-hand or hear stories about a hydrogen embrittlement failure. In fact, the fear of this potential failure is so palpable that many of the stories have taken on urban legend status. Although many of these stories may not be as exceptional as they are made out to be, there is no denying the fact that a hydrogen embrittlement failure can be painful to all the parties involved.

One might ask why a hydrogen embrittlement failure is any worse than other fastener failure. This is a good question. Perhaps one would argue that it is no worse than any other, we all understand that a failure is a failure. However, others might argue that it is worse because it comes with no warning and its fallout is completely unpredictable. In one case, it might affect almost an entire lot of parts but in another only a small percentage. Additionally, although parts can have all the ingredients for a problem, it only strikes after the parts are put into service. This makes such failures especially difficult because containment and restoration is often extremely costly.