Determining the Cause of Faults in the SAE 1018 Carbon Steel Used in Potable Water Pipelines by Means of Digital Image Processing

In this work the reason of the cracks found in SAE 1018 carbon steel pipelines used for potable water supply is determined. In order to accomplish it, some techniques of microanalysis using X-rays (SEM: Scanning Electron Microscopy) over some samples of faulty and normal pipes as well as the Digital Image Processing (DIP) of its microphotographs captured by means of SEM, were used. The obtained results prove that the low quality of the raw material and the steel manufacturing process were the reason of the cracks observed in the SAE 1018 carbon steel pipelines.