One Star Reviews of Local Aluminum Manufacturers

[Nightside]

Hydro- Extrusion Portland, Inc

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-01/nasa-says-aluminum-fraud-caused-700-million-satellite-failures

 

NASA should know to always check the reviews online before a big purchase.

Edited May 1, 2019 by Nightside

[p1t1o]

To be fair, they did have a "30% off when the spend 500k or more" voucher in their inbox, and thats a sweet deal.

[StrandedonEarth]

SpaceX also allegedly learned an expensive lesson about trusting third-party manufacturers’ specs and certifications 

[YNM]

I know many of the parts are single-piece, custom-made, single-order, but is there any chance for such parts to have a destructive test sample taken from it ? In civil engineering at least destructive tests are still kinda the norm since there's a need for high reliability, and we can take samples since there're lots of material being used.

[Shpaget]

Not trying to say that it's ok to sell inferior material, but when you're working on a nine digit project, you should do your due diligence and check stuff. Material analysis is not that expensive, nor difficult to do.

It's particularly worrisome that it took almost 20 years for someone to notice.

[DNKKING]

38 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

Not trying to say that it's ok to sell inferior material, but when you're working on a nine digit project, you should do your due diligence and check stuff. Material analysis is not that expensive, nor difficult to do.

It's particularly worrisome that it took almost 20 years for someone to notice.

They must always go to trusted people or the most frequented shops.

Edited May 2, 2019 by DNKKING

[MaverickSawyer]

13 hours ago, YNM said:

I know many of the parts are single-piece, custom-made, single-order, but is there any chance for such parts to have a destructive test sample taken from it ? In civil engineering at least destructive tests are still kinda the norm since there's a need for high reliability, and we can take samples since there're lots of material being used.

They frequently do, at least with more... reputable aerospace firms. I know for a fact that the programs my dad worked on at Aerojet had test coupons as a regular part of the process of manufacturing.

Doesn't help much if the QA team is the ones fudging the data at the behest of management, though.  

[YNM]

2 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

They frequently do, at least with more... reputable aerospace firms. ...

Doesn't help much if the QA team is the ones fudging the data at the behest of management, though.

Yeah, but we also test all materials that has even received mill / manufacturer certificate once it arrives on the site. It's the penultimate step, and to the best of my knowledge every structural/construction code requires it. If the materials are all defective ? Well, go home, get us some proper ones please.

Probably they'd also want a dimension check (thickness being the most important I imagine), especially if it's a one-off project !

Edited May 3, 2019 by YNM

[Kerbart]

On 5/1/2019 at 10:25 AM, Nightside said:

Hydro- Extrusion Portland, Inc

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-01/nasa-says-aluminum-fraud-caused-700-million-satellite-failures

 

NASA should know to always check the reviews online before a big purchase.

Yeah... but dude... BOGO!

[magnemoe]

14 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

They frequently do, at least with more... reputable aerospace firms. I know for a fact that the programs my dad worked on at Aerojet had test coupons as a regular part of the process of manufacturing.

Doesn't help much if the QA team is the ones fudging the data at the behest of management, though.  

This, also destructive testing on random samples is standard practice for stuff like cannon shells and air bags who get destroyed in testing. 

And why, you making an very small run, very high profit and profile custom works it makes sense to test it well. 
I can understand cutting corners on large orders, or stuff like fire protection who is unlikely to be needed but this. 

[DNKKING]

It's not cool for the Nasa