ATAA

American Technical Analysis & Assistance, Inc., based in Edgefield County, South Carolina, is a company involved in various business interests of technical nature including products and process development within its fields of interest, industry and expertise.

In past years American Technical had been approached with many opportunities affording us the knowledge base, resources and abilities to address new opportunities in forensic, industrial, and insurance consulting. We have assisted our clients in very diverse applications from plaintiff and defense case work, industrial product/process development ,product design and insurance claims.These activities drive our growth, enhance our effectiveness and enable us to continue assisting the needs of our clients.

Forensic Analysis

Our Forensic service include the investigation of materials, products, structures or components that fail or do not operate/function as intended, causingpersonal injury or damage to property. The consequences of failure are dealt with by the law of product liability. The field also deals with retracing processes and procedures leading to accidents in operation of vehicles or machinery. The subject is applied most commonly in civil law cases, although may be of use in criminal law cases. Generally the purpose of a forensic technical investigation is to locate cause or causes of failure with a view to improve performance or life of a component, or to assist a court in determining the facts of an accident. It can also involve investigation of intellectual property claims, especially patents.

Methods

Methods used in forensic investigations include reverse engineering, inspection of witness statements, a working knowledge of current standards, as well as examination of the failed component itself. The fracture surface of a failed product can reveal much information on how the item failed and the loading pattern prior to failure. The study of fracture surfaces is known as fractography. Fatigue often produces a characteristic fracture surface for example, enabling diagnosis to be made of the cause of the failure. The key task in many such investigations is to identify the failure mechanism by examining the failed part using physical and chemical techniques. This activity is sometimes called root cause analysis. Corrosion is another common failure modeneeding careful analysis to determine the active agents in the environment which initiated the corrosive attack. Accidents caused by fire are especially challenging owing to the frequent loss of critical evidence, although when halted early enough can usually lead to the cause. Fire investigation is a specialist skill where arson is suspected, but is also important in vehicular accident reconstruction where faulty fuel lines, for example, may be the cause of an accident.

1. 2. 3.