2. Components, parameters and indicators

As mentioned previously, the service functionalities linked to surface integrity are represented by several components.

– A component is a subset of surface integrity that groups together different parameters of the same type and scale of observation.

– A parameter is an elementary component of a component that represents a property (physical, mechanical, optical, thermal, biological, electrical, etc.). It can be qualitative or quantitative. A parameter is quantified using one or more indicators.

– An indicator is the numerical value associated with the corresponding parameter. There is no such thing as a numerical indicator for a qualitative parameter.

The organization between the surface integrity concept, components, parameters and indicators is then pyramidal (figure