An inspector calls
Matthew Calveley CEng MIMMM carves out a career in materials failure and forensic engineering.
Born in Stoke, UK, Matthew Calveley grew up in the Wirral, just over the Mersey from Liverpool, which is where he now lives. After school, he went to university in Sheffield to study Forensic Engineering. It was either that or Disaster Management he recalls.
'I picked Maths and Physics for A-levels and that somewhat guided what I might do at university. Looking through the prospectus at the options for courses, Forensic Engineering and Disaster Management sounded the most interesting. It was around the height of CSI [the TV show] etc,' reflects Calveley.
Being in Sheffield, the course had a strong metallurgy component. The lecturer who ran it was also an expert witness for roadside traffic incidents, which meant he was well versed in the types of technical roles and careers that existed in the field alongside legal and insurance professionals.
Calveley is grateful for that. 'It’s helped me grow into a niche of materials science and metallurgy that I would have had no idea existed at 18. I’d like to say there was some foresight and planning, but it was just luck really that I happened to pick something that was actually a niche and in-demand profession.'
After graduating, he started working at Atlantic Engineering in Birkenhead. The company did repairs on propeller shafts and other local welding jobs, with its own metallurgy lab. It also had a long history in failure investigations, as well as R&D.
At the time, Calveley met some employees from Brookes Bell, a technical and scientific consultancy to the maritime and energy industries. 'They would travel all over the world investigating failures on ships and send samples back for joint inspection in the lab. Using the mechanical testing equipment or optical microscopy to look at the samples was my first introduction to the world of expert witness and consultancy.'
A year in, he took a small detour back to Sheffield to do hands-on physical metallurgy work at Premier Hytemp, witnessing heat treatment and forging. Unfortunately for him, the company was bought out shortly after he joined, and a lot of the technical team left, with Calveley becoming one of the most senior metallurgists. Since then, a lot of his work has been in a consultancy, but he says his brief stints at Atlantic Engineering and Premier Hytemp were 'really valuable in understanding the work of metallurgy and steel manufacturing'.
Of Atlantic Engineering, Calveley says it gave him a good understanding of the pressures faced by manufacturers and processors. 'That then helps inform you when you’re trying to understand [a case]…It gives context to understand how those human elements come into it as well.'
After leaving Premier Hytemp, he remembered his encounters with the Brookes Bell employees. Founded in 1903 by a retired Naval Officer, the company had a strong maritime background, but there was always a desire to diversify, because metallurgy can apply to so many different sectors.
'Sometimes you just have a strong reputation in a particular industry, and it makes it hard to diversify, but that was part of the reason for developing its lab services 10 years later.'
He initially joined the consultancy as a site surveyor and forensic consultant, working in Liverpool for nearly four years while simultaneously studying remotely for a Master’s in Corrosion at the University of Manchester, UK, before moving to Singapore. The cases were usually instructed by the insurer or the lawyer. Then the insurers or underwriters will look for a suitable expert to manage their interest.
The job was varied. It could involve reviewing documents, like reports, photographs or any information about a failure, and then providing an opinion on the causes or actions to manage the situation.
Or it might involve witnessing testing in a laboratory anywhere in the world. Or, he might be going onsite to an ‘active’ situation to gather evidence for investigation and documenting, so that, at some point later, if there is litigation, the information has been gathered in a sound, scientific and recordable manner.
While he didn’t expect to travel straight away, within six months he went off to examine a slewing bearing that was strapped to the side of a ship in Salalah, on the southern coast of Oman.
A forensic eye
Calveley would be expected to investigate any type of problem. Many of his cases involved engine failures, so he would be inspecting crankshafts, pistons, or fuel injectors, while checking ship structures. He would also investigate fuel storage tanks and cargo holds, as sometimes the cargo can cause corrosion. Sulphur and coal in the holds can cause caustic acids to develop and result in rapid deterioration on top of a structural plate that was not as thick as it ideally could be.
To the uninitiated, the size and variety of these big ships seems tremendous. And so trying to diagnose the exact failure cause, while looking at different multi-storey engines or vast cargo holds, appears a herculean task. How was he able to diagnose the problem on these titans of the sea and become an expert on all manner of ships?
He reflects, 'You’re needed for your expertise of how to handle an investigation and a general expertise of materials. And so a lot of it is applying what you already know, asking the right kinds of questions and being able to take in and assimilate information.'
Calveley shares, 'What typically happens in these cases is that you’ll have a number of experts instructed from different sides. And so you’re all representing different parties.'
Taking time to deal with people and discern which part of the story requires more digging is important, as well as keeping an open mind onsite and waiting to digest all the information later. Although Calveley highlights there is a duty to flag anything obvious spotted onsite, as not pointing it out could harm the case.
'Particularly in failure investigation, the final event that may have resulted in failure may not necessarily be the event that caused it. It’s about being mindful that you’ve got to really follow along the process of investigation to get to the root of the matter. I think the majority of good experts are just curious people who are good with technical information…,' Calveley says.
It seems that a large part of the job is using a framework for investigation and staying open to possibilities, while relying on experience to focus on priorities. It must be difficult to maintain neutrality, but this is critical to the job. You have to 'navigate either pressures from people with an interest, or other experts,' Calveley acknowledges.
'Fundamentally, it’s your reputation at the end of the day. And these are all small industries essentially, in the sense that people know each other.'
On these vessels, there is a protocol for regular and special surveys when they are dry docked and examined using non-destructive testing methods. That includes checking the thickness of the plate and structure to verify its condition.
In some cases, 'it’s trying to match up with what you’re seeing versus what was surveyed recently and understanding, yes, it is in seawater and, yes, you would expect x rate of corrosion per year, but potentially some areas are more susceptible to accelerated corrosion compared to others. And this should have been rectified and repaired some time ago'.
Calveley gathers all the information, including previous survey results, to understand if the damage is normal or abnormal. If it is abnormal, that is either due to the situation, or the previous survey can’t possibly have been accurate.
He muses, 'It’s amazing how many things fail and yet have immaculate maintenance records. Ultimately, the metal or the material doesn’t lie. So, any other evidence that you’re provided, you have to be able to understand it in the context of what you are seeing. And if it does not match in some way, then you’ve got to try and understand why it doesn’t. And if you still can’t understand why, questioning whether it’s a reliable source of information.'
While the acute inspection period can be anything from a few days to a couple of weeks, the work afterwards can last years until there is some sort of resolution, whether that be in court or via a settlement.
On the seas
In 2014, Calveley moved to Singapore with Brookes Bell, who were keen to build a metallurgical presence there. He says it was fun, as it was just before he had kids and Singapore was a great hub for exploring that part of the world.
While time and tide waits for no man, shipping also doesn’t stop if it can help it, and he could be asked to travel to any port in the world. Calveley remembers the most extreme example of ‘duty calling’ – being asked to travel on Christmas Day to join a vessel, '…because the nature of shipping is that for every hour or day that a ship’s delayed or down, there is a cost'.
Usually, he would join the ship in the dock or at anchorage. While he was not asked to, his colleagues would sometimes transit in the vessel to monitor propulsion, or for sea trials. 'I remember a cruise liner that had suffered a failure just as it was about to go on its final voyage, and then was under repair for maybe two or three weeks, but we were there on and off for that period.'
That does mean spending time with sailors who might have been together at sea for a long time. Once, instead of having Christmas dinner with his family, he ended up with a crew from Eastern Europe who liked to watch footage of a crew member driving their 4x4 across rocky terrain.
Depending on the issue, he might have to interview the crew about the sequence of events. The challenge is matching up the physical evidence with their recollections and perspectives.
Calveley reflects that his time at Brookes Bell helped develop that investigative muscle to question documents and people’s accounts before matching it with the technical information.
Crossing tracks
After nearly 12.5 years at Brookes Bell, he joined EA Technology for a year in 2023, which was more focused on electrical components and transmission items and utilities, such as overhead cable lines.
Now, as Technical Director for the loss adjusting company Charles Taylor, he works with loss adjustors who investigate product defects. They work with different sectors and examine components like wind turbine bearings, automotives and welding issues.
'As much as there’s a steep learning curve in each of these different sectors', Calveley observes, 'I get to benefit from the knowledge of other experts and that then helps me to develop my knowledge.' Every case builds on his repertoire.
'Ultimately, it goes back to metal being metal, regardless of its environment. When you apply a load, it’ll behave in a certain way, you expose it to a certain environment and it’ll behave a certain way. It’s about understanding these fundamental things from your knowledge of metallurgy.'
He has worked on the electrical side of solar farms and mechanical side of wind turbines, and observed where they are encountering materials failures and the issues with rapidly introducing bigger pieces of infrastructure. Failures are maybe occurring where some consequences haven’t been fully considered, he muses.
In the toolbox
Keeping on top of advanced techniques is part of the deal. During his time at Brookes Bell, he became Laboratory Manager and Technical Lead of Metallurgy, and designed and project-managed the lab from the ground up for materials testing, fuel testing and non-destructive testing.
'That was a real eye opener of the world of in situ non-destructive techniques,' Calveley adds.
How does he think artificial intelligence (AI) will change his industry? Experimenting at home with non-client images, he says current AI software is not miles off identifying a problem he presented it with, but some interpretation is still needed, quizzing the software and requiring a baseline of knowledge.
However, like many other sectors, it raises questions around accuracy and reliability. 'I think this is going to be a challenge over the next decade or so, with introduction of technologies, platforms and applications that will attempt to do this [work]. But how reliable will it be? Is it going to take away some elements of the younger generation cutting their teeth on investigations?'
In the short term, he is more concerned about the potential for fraud if images or photographs of failure can be generated. 'Again, it’s that scrutiny, you always have the physical evidence. Being able to see something in person is potentially even more of a powerful thing now because you can’t entirely trust images. There’s still real value to humans being involved and being onsite to examine something.'
Does the information from forensic engineers feed back to manufacturing teams or maintenance? Unfortunately, it’s not something Calveley is aware of. 'There are things you would like to see incorporated in safety measures or design, but how often that actually filters through to the people that make the decisions is not clear.'
Nevertheless, finding the culprit is in itself rewarding. 'There’s certainly a satisfying point, when you are presented with a failure or a claim that’s a mess of information and data, and then it all suddenly clicks together and makes sense. You’re able to describe that to the client or whoever’s suffered from the incident. You finally make sense of the initial chaos.'
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