ABSTRACT
Modern designs of components for the power-generating, aircraft, or space industry place such high demands on the materials specified that they can very often only be met by tailoring composite materials for these specific applications. In particular, the requirements for bulk properties and surface properties differ so much that the surfaces have to be specially treated and modified to meet the particular demands. This treatment is termed surface engineering, and in order to meet the specifications, the surfaces have to be characterised and the methods of quality assurance have to be applied similar to the procedures used with the bulk material. The properties of the surface layer or coating are also obtained by interactions. Once a surface treatment has gone into production, quality assurance procedures have to be applied to maintain the standard achieved during development work and be considered adequate for the component.
