Embrittled Office Chair Failure Analysis: A First-Hand Account

The entire S‑E‑A Materials team recently moved their offices into a different section of S‑E‑A’s headquarters. The new space came with a few perks, including a spacious, sun-soaked, dedicated conference area. During one of the first meetings in the new space, a chairback suddenly and dramatically shattered. Luckily, the co-author sitting in the chair escaped the harrowing incident with no injuries. What happens when a room full of FAS members have a front-row seat to a shattering chair? Obviously, the failure analysis begins immediately.

Samples were collected from the offending chair, and reference samples were also collected from other, identical, chairs throughout S-E-A. The materials involved were identified by FTIR and characterized by TGA and DSC. The results of this work indicate a very specific mechanism leading to a dramatically localized reduction in the mechanical properties of only one part of the chair. Has S-E-A’s entire fleet of chairs been compromised? Should the materials team, or worse, the entire company, live in constant fear of shattering chairs?