Which max sulfur limit was exceeded, heat analysis or product analysis?
My initial feeling is that this small amount of sulfur over the limit will not cause a problem and may be able to be justified depending on Mn content. If the mill test reports show that the material met the mechanical testing requirements (tensile, yield & elongation), there should be no structural concern. But, you have a product that does not meet specified requirements and you know it doesn't. Is your company willing to accept the possibility of being found negligent if a failure occurs and folks find out you knew in advance the product did not meet the specs?
Marty
John, I often have to supply mill certs with products I fabricate. If the certs do not meet the customers specs they will reject it. Anytime I receive material from a supplier that does not meet the specs I asked for, I send it back. Period. There is no harm or foul in this, the supplier did not give the customer (me) what I asked for. If I accept the wrong material and then fabricate something out of it, I will most likely end up using that product as a flower pot in the front yard and one thing I don't need is a $50,000 flower pot!! Your boss probably does not need one either. One other thing, if your engineer does not want to commit, this tells me that the responsibilities are falling squarely on your shoulders. Your engineer should be one of your best resources, if he will not commit, why should you? When the customer specifies a particular material, why would you sell him something different without his approval? My apologies for such a long opinion.
Respectfully,
Mike Sherman
Shermans Welding
John,
I'm thinking that since your engineer won't commit to a decision, as Mike Sherman said, the decision seems to be yours ( but not necessarily). I know that rejecting material for such a small percentage beyond allowable limits can put you underfire from many directions and it sounds like you won't have any/much support. One thing you can do is to contact the customer, explain everything you can learn, and let him make the decision. Then if the material is rejected, all the production people, vendors, or others need to know is that your company won't be paid for it. If the vendor resists, he can do the research as to why the material should not be rejected. Either way, all you are trying to do is identify a non-conformity and seek a resolution everyone can accept.
Hope this helps
CHGuilford
Thanx, I had determined from the begining of this ordeal that I would be out of pocket (or the company anyway) for the cost of product ananlysis. As it turns out the probable severity of the matter finnaly set in to the powers that be, and also the vendor that supplied the product.
So in turn I started getting too much help from every direction, the supplier is requesting that I send him two 1" samples so that he may perfom the product analysis, and my production supervisor is laying the smack down on anyone who even looks at material before it has been relased for production.
As for the engineer, well he still needs a spine transplant.
All is well, Thanks again for the help, Everyone!