D. Hartgerink, W. David Beverly Receiving Inspection Test Facility (RITF), NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Summary: Counterfeit parts cases were investigated by the W. David Beverly Receiving Inspection Test Facility at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The situations involved life-critical hardware used in Air Force and NASA ejection and recovery hardware. Methods of analysis and the steps taken to prove that the parts were counterfeit will be presented as well as the methods used to non-destructively screen assemblies for the presence of the counterfeit parts. The presentation will show how classic and relatively simple laboratory methods were successfully applied to detect counterfeit parts in assembled product. Additionally it will be shown how the counterfeit parts could have easily been caught during the paperwork receiving process or during the printed wiring board buildup.