At ARDL, we maintain the world’s leading forensic services for rubber failure analysis, including:
- Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
- Intellectual Property Issues
- Materials Analysis
- Optical and Electron Microscopy
- Rubber Product Failure Analysis
- Adhesion Studies
Products sometimes fail before they wear out. If product failure leads to property damage or personal injury, regardless of the cause of failure, manufacturers can find themselves involved in litigation (claims and lawsuits) in the United States, even when there is no problem with their product.
Experience
ARDL’s President Emeritus, Mr. Jerry Leyden, has been involved in tire and product failure analysis as a expert since 1975. He has testified as an expert in rubber product failure analysis in the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Germany and the Virgin Islands.
He has been employed as both a tire compounder and a tire engineer, and has written many technical articles on the failure analysis of rubber products.
Jerry has been joined by Dr. Jason Poulton to further bolster ARDL’s product failure analysis capabilities. Jason held various positions in both Research and Development at a major tire manufacturer. Those positions include Director-Compound Development and Laboratories, Director-Consumer Tire Development and Director-Polymer/Tire Materials Basic Research. A position with a major glove manufacturer provided Jason with experience in latex/dipped goods compounding and manufacturing. Jason’s exposure to product scale up and manufacturing plant support/troubleshooting brings real world experience in root cause analysis to ARDL’s forensic team.
Non-Destructive Testing
ARDL’s laboratory is well equipped to perform non-destructive and destructive testing on products and tires. Non-destructive testing often requires Shearography, Visual and Microscopic analysis, and documentation utilizing digital photography.
Destructive Testing
When destructive testing is required and is authorized by the court, ARDL can dissect products, test materials removed from the component, and examine exposed surfaces with light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy or transmission electron microscopy as appropriate. ARDL runs extensive chemical as well as physical tests on materials and components as required.
Courtroom Demonstrations
Courtroom demonstrative aids are helpful in presenting and explaining failure modes and material conditions to jurors. ARDL is skilled in constructing demonstrative aids and presentations. Your lawyer will understand the importance of this expertise.
