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Technical staff
Steve Howard - President
B.S. Mechanical Engineering with extensive course work in Metallurgy
Peng Liu, Ph.D. - Chief Metallurgist
Registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
M.S. Physical Metallurgy
Ph.D. Metallurgical Engineering
Ph.D. Dissertation: "Fundamental Studies of Hydrogen Attack in C-0.5Mo Steel and Weldments Applied to Petroleum and Petrochemical Industries," Sponsored by American Petroleum Institute/Material Properties Council (API/MPC), Chevron, Shell & Texaco, and BP
Paul Howard - Director of Operations
B.S. Industrial Technology
Jesse Melancon - Senior Metallurgical Technician, Laboratory Analyst
B.S. Industrial Technology
Logan Armand
Metallurgical Technician
B.S. Industrial Technology
services
Metallurgical Analysis - Howard & Associates International, Inc. has a 7,500 square foot office/metallurgical laboratory located in Lafayette, Louisiana. We utilize our decades of experience and knowledge in offshore/onshore drilling, mechanical design and analysis, machine shop manufacturing, quality control, API standards, NS-1 Standards, DS-1 Standards, ASTM Standards, ASME Standards, welding engineering, mechanical engineering, and metallurgy to provide the best solutions for your business.
Howard & Associates International's metallurgy lab performs metallurgical failure analysis and testing on components that fail due to fatigue, hydrogen embrittlement, stress corrosion cracking, overload, corrosion fatigue, environmentally assisted cracking, liquid metal embrittlement, weld cracking, cleavage fractures, brittle fractures, coating problems, and others. We provide both destructive testing and non-destructive testing of components to determine cause of failure.
We have the expertise to perform failure analysis on pipeline failures, mooring system failures, anchor chain failures, and tubular failures (drill pipe, drill collars, subs, tubing, casing). Our expertise also includes hardbanding evaluation, metallurgical analysis of power generation equipment/piping, metrology/dimensional analysis, metallurgical analysis of medical devices, and metallurgical analysis of food processing equipment.
We provide expert witness/litigation support to law firms. We conduct investigations of insurance claims for insurance companies.
Development of Material Specifications and Material Selection for Manufacturing including drill pipe, drill collars, drilling tools, forgings, coatings, castings, heat treatment processes, and hardbanding.
Drill String Design and Development including drill string design services and manufacturing specifications for land and deepwater service. We also perform analysis and development of drill pipe connections and service connections used on downhole tools.
On-site Monitoring during the manufacture and inspection of land and deepwater drill strings. On-site monitoring services are also provided for internal coatings applied to drill pipe, tubing, casing, and other tubular products. Howard & Associates International works with API standards, NS-1 Standards, and DS-1 Standards while monitoring the manufacturing and inspection of drill strings and other tubular components.
Forensic Investigation including on-site and in-house failure analysis and accident investigations, determination of root cause of failure, and engineer expert witness.
Online classes (virtual classroom) at our office facility, at clients' facilities and also at onshore and offshore rig sites. Classes are offered on lessons learned pertaining to drilling failures, production failures, and pipeline failures.