Process safeguarding throughout the product life cycle

Measurement technologies are mandatory in different manufacturing technologies and can be found in all phases of the product life cycle. Often there are a lot of parameters that influence process quality. The limitations of sensor-based measuring methods with which quality-affecting quantities can be detected are also unknown. Therefore, quality loops are needed to react to imperfections at an early stage and to minimize the reject rate.A large, up to now incompletely examined field is the influence of surface contaminations on subsequent processes such as adhesive bonding, coating, soldering, welding, hardening, etc. As an example the paper will concentrate on a hardening process succeeding a machining process.