Pop pickers of a certain age may recall it as part of the title of a Nick Lowe song, but the sound of breaking glass can also play a role in determining the cause of glass breakage. This was referenced on the recent Pilkington Fractography training course, during which it was explained that glass breaking with a loud bang indicates a high stress fracture.
Hosted at our Technology Centre at Lathom in Lancashire, the course attracted several Pilkington commercial team members as well as representatives from customers. Presented by Jon Williams, Principal Technologist in Research and Development, topics included anatomy of a failure origin, tools of the trade, finding the fracture origin and recognising fracture patterns.
"This course has been organised mainly on an internal basis in the past," explained Phil Brown, Technical Advisory Service Manager and course organiser. "It is only recently that we began providing a concise version to the wider commercial team and our customers. It has been popular among our customers with plenty of positive feedback."
The half-day course is intended for commercial, sales and technical representatives who undertake site visits to help them identify causes of glass breakage.
"We use case studies to highlight different types of breakages," Phil added, "and it is also an opportunity for the group to share their experiences of past projects. It is not uncommon for course participants to bring photographs of fractured glass for us to assess!"
This month's Fractrography course culminated with a glass detective challenge during which delegates teamed up to deploy their best deduction skills to determine the likely causes of fracture for several broken glass samples. There were no prizes for the winning team, but it was as much as fun as it is possible to have whilst viewing pieces of glass.
For customers interested in this subject, the course will be repeated in September and places can be reserved via the Product Knowledge online registration form.