It is often said by many technologists that failures of equipment run in 7 year cycles. This corresponds approximately to the length of time a single engineer or critically sized group of engineers is associated with a single job. After this, an engineer moves on because of: (1) an economy move by the company, (2) change in national priorities, (3) greener pastures, (4) completion of a project, (5) mental fatigue, or (6) retirement. It becomes necessary, all over again, to educate a new group of engineers to the fact that stainless steel despite being stainless will sustain stress corrosion cracking in 2 ppm chloride.
Another technical aphorism: “It is cheaper to redo the experiments than to find it in the literature or in past company records.” Also with the plethora of theories, rumors, half-truths, and nondefined experiments–Whom can you believe these days?
I am recommending that we reconsider our approach...
