Surface Anomaly
Anything on the surface that departs from what the part should look like but does not fall into one of the named categories.
What causes it
- Stains, residue or incompletely removed coolant
- Discolouration from heat or chemical exposure
- Coating and plating irregularities
- Marks from a process nobody has characterised yet
Why human inspection misses it
By definition this is the class nobody wrote an inspection instruction for. An inspector looking for dents and burrs is not looking for a thing that has no name, and a new defect mode can run for a long time before anyone names it.
How it looks to a camera
This is the open-set case: instead of recognising a known defect, the model flags regions that do not look like the rest of the population. It is the category that catches process changes nobody predicted.
Why it matters
A new defect mode appearing is often the first visible sign that something upstream has changed - a new material lot, a reconditioned tool, a different shift practice. Catching the unknown class early is how you find that.
Adam detects surface anomaly along with five other defect classes. Upload a photograph of your part and see what it finds.