I'm an engineer, we don't have warm and fuzzy feelings. In fact we try to avoid feelings period. All major semiconductor players (in particular Intel) test the living **** out of whatever 316L products they are using for their UHP gas distribution systems. Nobody gives a **** what was on Kobe's or anybody else's spec sheet as the material was going to be sent to an independent testing laboratory for verification before acceptance. Every roll was tested as the semiconductor industry learned a lesson when Siemens had a silane leak and blew up a building in Germany. Perhaps because Kobe knew this upfront they never tried to send sub-standard product to the SEMATECH member companies. Other industries that were not so diligent who knows what they did? Believe me, if there was a USA supplier that was as good at making 316L stainless steel piping as Kobe, SEMATECH, being a US government funded organization, would have used it. Kobe won the competition fair and square. What do you want me to tell you?
Not sure how the semiconductor industry does it, but I haven’t seen a production facility that does “100% inspection of incoming materials “ in the last forty years.
At best, there would be an initial qualification during the development and pre production phases, then some relatively superficial spot checks thereafter.
The material vendor, in this case Kobe, would develop a quality program that includes in process controls and documentation.
Sounds like Kobe was cheating on this quality program and falsifying records as a matter of course. From what I recall, that cost them a lot of money in the end.
100% inspection is 50% effective. It’s the in process controls, and documentation that insure quality, not final inspection at the end user.
In this case, you are, in fact running on your feelings, and not on the facts, as determined in a courtroom.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. In fact, I vaguely remember Kobe being a crankshaft forging supplier of ours about twenty five years ago, and don’t remember any issues with them.
