Due to rapidly advancing production and testing technology, today’s industrial quality assessment procedures are more rigorous—and more precise—than ever before. The core of quality control in many manufacturing processes, quality assessments may include sample inspection, defect observation, fracture analysis and geometric product specifications (GPS). These tasks are performed across industries such as electrical parts/electronics, automotive, aerospace, machinery, medical devices and construction equipment.
Techniques traditionally used to perform precise surface and material analysis in relation to quality control include contact profilometry and traditional light microscopy. While both of these approaches continue to produce reliable results, the introduction of opto-digital microscopy into industrial quality control has brought material analysis into the digital age, along with a long list of advantages. The specific benefits of opto-digital microscopy versus previous analysis methods are numerous and can be clearly seen in application highlights centered in a number of different industries. Opto-digital technology can enhance quality assessment within virtually any manufacturing environment.