My recommendation is that you institute some QC tests on the plated parts that you receive back from your plater in order to evaluate the quality of that plating. The so-called “blister test” was the most important and valuable one we developed, and it should NEVER be done by the plating company but by YOU.

If the steel is decarburized, it means the surface of the steel has lost carbon. If either of the conditions described in part 1 exists, the steel will have been subjected to...

The next set of blog posts will discuss trade-secret damages. Trade-secret law, unlike patent law, is governed by both state and federal law in the U.S. As a result, the law is not necessarily uniform throughout the U.S. Nevertheless, trade-secret damages, generally, can take one of three forms: actual loss caused by misappropriation, unjust enrichment and reasonable royalties.

We continue to review some of the most important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.

We plated the mating surfaces of our Inconel 738 components that were going to be nickel brazed, and the parts failed in service prematurely. An analysis showed that our brazing was OK, but the plating had peeled from the base metal causing the premature failure. How can we prevent this in the future?

The result of hardness testing is what is used as the first level of interpreting the correctness of the heat-treatment procedure.

My last “damages” blog post presented the 16 Georgia Pacific factors that can be considered by a jury in determining a reasonable royalty award in a patent infringement case. The Georgia Pacific factors may not be the only issues that arise in determining a reasonable royalty.

We continue to review some of the most important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.

We continue to review some of the most important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.

Previously, we described the situation and discussed the heat-treatment operation. In this blog we will finish with a discussion of our observations and the remedy.