<p>Finding the root cause of failure in industrial components can be sometimes more akin to the art of forensic metallurgy than technology, given that the root cause can be rather hidden in the processing history of the material. As it happens, the process of casting and the solidification laws are a large contributor to these causes. This paper brings forward a few examples of cast structures that, directly or indirectly, became root causes of failure. These examples belong to four large classes of failures: (a) due to material defects; (b) wrong design/components used inappropriately; (c) environmental failure; and (d) root cause of secondary failures. Several materials were investigated, namely, iron alloys, aluminum alloys, copper alloys, and brazing alloys. Failure mechanisms encountered in these failures were fatigue, overload, corrosion, dealloying, liquid metal embrittlement, and wear. Characterization methods included microscopy (optical and electron microscopy), analytical methods (energy-dispersive spectroscopy, EDS and X-ray fluorescence, XRF), and non-destructive techniques (X-ray imaging and ultrasound).</p>