Glass Expert Performs Beer Bottle Failure Analysis

Glass failure analysis expert witness performs a failure analysis on a broken beer bottle. According to the witness the bottle "explosion" occured as the bottle was being set down. The glass expert examined the failed bottle and the failure analysis showed that the bottle failure resulted from damage to tbe knurl on the bottom of the bottle. The bottle must have hit a hard object when being placed down. The upper left photograph is of the re-assembled bottom of the bottle. The crack comes up from the bottom. Thus the origin is contained in the heel of the bottle. Upper right is a 40X photomicrograph of the portion of the heel containing the failure origin. The failure originated at a chip in the knurl on the bottom of the bottle. This is not a manufacturing defect. It is a result of damage caused by the user.