Fractal geometry for industrial data evaluation

Due to continuously increasing pressure from competitors to improve the quality of products, there is a demand for objective measurement and control methods for materials, processes and production processes. However, it is almost impossible to describe many structures (e.g. defects, surfaces, cracks, time series from dynamic processes) by conventional methods because they are complex and irregular. A new approach is the application of fractal geometry which is successfully used in science. Even though its applications in industry are quite rare and experimental, fractal geometry in conjunction with statistics can be used as a useful and powerful tool for an explicit, objective and automatic description of production process data (laboratory, off-line and potentially on-line). Despite the fact that this research focuses on data from the glass industry, the methodology and principles for data evaluation from industry can be applied to industry in general.