Based in the Consultancy Department, responsible for providing technical consultancy services, much of which involves some form of litigation in both the Civil and Criminal Courts. Failure investigations covered may involve plant or machinery, both on and offshore, or they may be process related such as operation of equipment or processes that have resulted in some type of failure or accident. Investigations cover a wide range of specialist materials expertise including processing of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, service failures of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, metallic and paint coating problems, corrosion, welding problems, non-destructive testing, etc.
Civil litigation work has involved investigations into several crane failures (including mobile and tower cranes), engine failures (from a Rover V8 petrol engine to marine diesel on an oil tanker), winch drum and gearbox failures on fishing vessels, failure of wire strand ground anchors at Victoria Deep Water Wharf, repairs to a failed dolphin at Port Kamsa, Guinea, corrosion of a zinc coated profiled steel roof, as well as many other similar jobs. Similar equipment and component failures, not involved with litigation, have included fatal accidents involving various racing cars, window failures, and industrial equipment failures such as a grab for an internal gantry crane at a rubbish processing plant and brake shaft failure on a gantry crane.
Criminal litigation cases have included reactivation of sub-machine guns, corrosion assessment of knife used in a murder, corrosion assessment of shotgun from a murder investigation, the examination of counterfeit coins and dies that they had been struck with, car keys from insurance claims, etc.
