Description
Structural health monitoring in mechanical engineering is a topic of recent research projects. Especially the monitoring of production processes is used to obtain valid data on how product quality can be optimized. Within the Collaborative Research Centre 653 a photonic based sensor network is used for monitoring of production processes. For future applications the required energy to drive remote sensor systems shall be supplied by optical means only as well as transmitting the signals for sensor control and data exchange. Therefore, the transmission losses of the optical waveguides have to be minimized. Transmission losses of optical waveguides can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic losses. This paper will introduce the key figures for evaluating the dimensional accuracy of optical waveguides caused by the production process (extrinsic losses). The goal is to ensure a quality of the geometrical characteristics within the production process, resulting in minimized transmission losses.
