Background: Equal-channel angular extrusion is a severe plastic deformation process that can be used for grain refinement to improve material properties of bulk metals. In this paper, the effect of equal-channel angular extrusion on the impact toughness of aluminum 1100 and brass C26000 was investigated.

Domestic electric heating elements that failed after a few years of use but before their expected service life were received for failure analysis. The investigation mainly involved visual examination and SEM studies including EDX (Energy-Dispersive X-ray analysis). From the background information and the SEM investigation revealed that the premature failure was mainly due to the general type of corrosion (resulting in short-circuiting) the heater elements as a result of the formation of magnesium and calcium based salts over a period time.