Despite great efforts and high expenditure in quality assurance, serious quality problems in the area of painting are sometimes not detected in time, even in the automotive industry: According to NHTSA.gov, since 2000, more than 25 car models from different manufacturers have had to be recalled in significant numbers due to poor paint quality. Such actions not only cause immense direct costs in the millions. No less problematic is the indirect damage caused, for example, by customer dissatisfaction resulting from such incidents and their impact on future brand loyalty.
Since the structure and visual effect of each applied coating layer is influenced by the previous layers, there is great potential for reducing quality costs if a decision could be made immediately after application and drying of a layer by means of a rapid inspection process as to whether the surface is in order and can be further processed or whether reworking is necessary or even discarding is to be expected at the end of the process chain. In particular, this makes it possible to draw conclusions at an early stage about the errors in process control underlying the surface defects.
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