Product Improvement

Creep Failure in Plastics: Prediction, Analysis, and Prevention

Language: English
Length: 90 min
Jun 26, 2025 02:30 PM
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Course Description

Eliminate creep at early stages and prevent your plastic parts from cracking, warping, or deforming over time. Get the right tools to spot creep, predict how your plastics will perform over time, and design parts that last longer, even under continuous stress. 


Jeffrey A. Jansen will provide proven methods to mitigate or eliminate creep, ensuring the long-term reliability of your plastics parts. Join the course to:

  • Spot Creep Before It Spreads: Identify visual signs and failure patterns, and connect them to the root causes before they escalate into recalls or breakdowns.
  • Best use testing and Prediction strategies: Use creep testing and analytical techniques to forecast how your part will perform over months or years and avoid underestimating your material’s limits.
  • Get real-life case studies: Analyze actual product failures and discover how to implement effective prevention strategies.
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Jeffrey A Jansen
Jeffrey A Jansen
The Madison Group
0 courses

Jeffrey A. Jansen is the Engineering Manager and a Partner at The Madison Group, an independent plastics engineering and consulting firm. Jeff is a proven plastic professional with more than 30 years of experience solving problems and addressing opportunities related to polymeric materials. He specializes in failure analysis, material identification and selection, as well as compatibility, aging, and lifetime prediction studies for thermoplastic materials. Jeff has performed over 5,000 investigations, both for industrial clients and as a part of litigation. He regularly presents live seminars and webinars covering a wide range of topics related to plastics failure, material performance, testing, and polymer technology. Jeff is a graduate of Carroll College and the Milwaukee School of Engineering

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Participants of this course includes

Why should you view this course?

20% of plastics failures occur due to creep. Surprisingly, the effect of time & temperature on plastic parts is missing in most failure analysis studies, and that's the only way to detect creep rupture. Without noticing the origin of creep in plastic parts, people may not be able to relate their part failure to creep and end up focusing their solving efforts on the wrong factor...

  1. Save time & efforts in solving creep failure by extracting relevant info (useful lifetime, creep properties, thermal stability...) from your test results.

  2. Wisely optimize your plastics part-design by understanding the effect of different factors influencing creep rupture (plastic type/formation, stress type & magnitude, temperature, design features...).

  3. Extend the lifetime of your plastics products in a service application with real-life case studies on creep failure prediction & prevention strategies.

Who should join this course?

  • Manufacturers of plastic parts, materials engineers, plastic part designers, quality engineers selecting or specifying plastic materials for an application.

  • Complete the course and (unlock your personalized certificate)– your badge of accomplishment awaits!

  • This course is suitable for intermediate level proficiency
    Intermediate
Questions you will be able to answer after this course:

  1. How to correctly troubleshoot existing plastic failures?

  2. How to improve the lifespan and performance of plastic products?

  3. How to check if plastics for new designs will withstand in long term?

Course Outline

Introduction to Creep Rupture

  • Viscoelasticity - Fundamental Behavior of Plastics
  • Creep as a Time-Dependent Deformation under Constant Stress   
  • Creep and Ductile-to-Brittle Transitions   

Creep Failure Mechanism

  • Role of Crazing in Creep Failure    
  • Influence of Constant Strain Loadings (Interference Fits, etc.)   
  • Apparent Strength Reduction Over Time   
  • Key Factors Affecting Creep
  1. Polymer Type and Formulation (including additives)   
  2. Stress Type and Magnitude    
  3. Temperature   
  4. Part Features / Stress Concentrations (e.g., corners, notches, knit lines)   
  • Creep Resistance vs. Creep Rupture Resistance   
  • Visual indicators of creep failure (e.g., cracking patterns, lack of ductility)   
  • Distinguishing creep failure from other failure modes

Creep Testing

  • Standard Creep Testing Methods (e.g., ASTM D2990)   
  • Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Time-Temperature Superposition

Analytical Testing Techniques Used to Understand the Creep Performance of a Plastic

  • Using FEA for stress analysis (and its limitations in predicting creep)   
  • Microscopic analysis (SEM) of creep fracture surfaces   
  • Material characterization techniques (FTIR, DSC, TGA)   

Prevention Strategies

  • Material Selection Guidelines for Creep Resistance   
  • Design Optimization for Creep Mitigation (stress reduction, etc.)   
  • Assembly Considerations to Reduce Internal Stresses   

Real-life Case Studies involving failures due to creep and setting up effective prevention measures

  • Button caps
  • Hex caps
  • Tip up
  • Industrial fan
  • Sensor
  • Electrical connector

Conclusions & Key Takeaways

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30 min Q & As for this course
Interact directly with your tutor and clarify your doubts
  1. 30 mins per session for Questions and Answers
  2. Clarify your doubts.
  3. If your questions are not answered, dont worry you will recieve tutor’s reply via email after sessions.
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