Fatigue and creep wearout failures in electronics—a historical retrospective
land safely with a minimum loss of life. enough, thus catastrophically destroying Times, May 1, 1988, p. 7.
This airplane was 19 years old and had the jet engine. 9. “Altitude Limit Put on Older 737’s
made almost 90,000 takeoffs and landings When the ME-262 was actually Because of Accident Over Hawaii,”
because of the short island-hopping produced for combat in 1943, it was with New York Times, April 30, 1988, pp.
flights
8
; thus, the fuselage had been Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engines; the 1 & 46.
subjected to nearly 90,000 compression- BMW 003 did not become flight–worthy 10. “Hundreds of Aging Planes Face a
decompression fatigue cycles. In fact, until late 1942. Sweeping Overhaul,” New York Times,
extensive repairs were needed on two Had the ME-262 been introduced in February 28, 1989, pp. A1 & A20.
prior occasions because of fatigue cracks
9
. large numbers in 1939, it is conceivable
The FAA investigation of the incident that the “Battle of Britain” might have Werner Engelmaier will be giving some of his
concluded that structural failure due to ended as Hitler envisioned, and the Allied solder joint reliability workshops at IPC Midwest
metal fatigue and corrosion was the cause Forces would not have been able to use the Conference in Schaumburg, IL, September 23-25,
of the fuselage failure
10
. British Isles as staging areas for the aerial 2009; there is also the possibility, given sufficient
It is not at all clear that the lessons war against Nazi Germany and later the interest, for workshops in Madrid, Spain on
from past fatigue disasters have been Normandy invasion. The United States November 18 and/or 19, 2009; for details of
learned and heeded. Management in would have had to fight an aerial war from the workshops go to www.engelmaier.com; for
most companies put pressure on their across the Atlantic, which would have been more information about the workshops contact
technical staff to produce answers as to logistically much more difficult, if not engelmaier@aol.com and for the IPC conferences
the reliability of product without making impossible. www.ipc.org.
adequate resources and time available.
This is unhappily not just true for fatigue references: Werner Engelmaier has over 43 years experience
reliability but for any mechanism that 1. Standard E 6-89, Standard in electronic packaging and interconnection
threatens long-term reliability. If anything, Terminology Relating to Methods of technology and has published over 190 papers,
the increasing pressures to reduce the Mechanical Testing, Annual Book of columns, book chapters and White Papers.
design cycle time and bring the product ASTM Standards, Vol. 03.01, ASTM, Known as ‘Mr. Reliability’ in the industry,
to market as soon as possible make proper Philadelphia, 1989. he is the president of Engelmaier Associates,
fatigue reliability testing near impossible. 2. Boyne, W. J., The Leading Edge, L.C., a firm providing consulting services on
Artabras, New York, 1991. reliability, manufacturing and processing aspects
creep—may have affected the 3. Nobbe, T. A., S. J. Mraz, and F. P. of electronic packaging and interconnection
outcome of WWii Najlepszy, “The Benefits of ‘Tombstone technology. He is the chairman of the IPC
The first recorded catastrophic occur- Technology” in “Back to the Drawing Main Committee on Product Reliability. The
rence of creep was with the Messerschmitt Board—Was It the Engineering?” TGM-ExnerMedal was bestowed on him in
Me-262. The Me-262 was the first turbojet Machine Design, Vol. 61, No. 5, March 2009 in Vienna, Austria, he was elected into
fighter plane and is shown in Figure 4. 9, 1989, pp. 90-91. the IPC Hall of Fame 2003, and was awarded
The ME-262 airplane was designed in 4. Gunston, B., Flights of Fantasy, the IPC President’s Award in 1996 and the
1939 without any engines being available. Mallard Press, New York, 1990. IEPS Electronic Packaging Achievement Award
The first prototype flew in 1941 with 5. “Civil Aircraft Accident: Report of the in 1987. He also was named a Bell Telephone
piston engines; the first jet flight was in Court of Inquiry into the Accidents to Laboratories Distinguished Member of Technical
1942. Comet G-ALYP on 10th January, 1954 Staff in 1986 and an IMAPS Fellow in
However, the BMW 003 turbojet and Comet G-ALYY on 8th April, 1996. More information is available at www.
engines (BMW = Brandenburgische 1954,” Ministry of Transport and Civil engelmaier.com, and he can be reached at
Motorenwerke, bought in 1939 by the Aviation, Her Majesty’s Stationary engelmaier@aol.com.
same initials Bayerische Motoren Werke) Office, London, 1955.
designed and built for the ME-262 initially 6. “Blast Rocks Jet Over Hawaii; 59
exhibited insufficient thrust and later Injured and One Missing,” New York
failed after no more than 12 hours of Times, April 29, 1988, pp. A1 & A13.
operation, usually catastrophically. The 7. Chronicle of Aviation, Bill Gunston,
reason, it turned out, was the fact that the ed., JL International Publishing Inc.,
turbine blades ran hot enough for them Liberty, Missouri, 1992, p. 826.
to significantly creep and hit the turbine 8. “Bomb Discounted As Cause Of
housing when they were stretched long Hawaii Plane Accident,” New York
40 – Global SMT & Packaging – September 2009 www.globalsmt.net
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