Add stamper part marking and orientation fiducials; label alignment noted as deprioritized option

docs/quality-automation.md

@@ -43,7 +43,36 @@ Ethernet/IP, but there is no off-the-shelf MES connector. Budget a light
 middleware service that stamps each measurement with the part serial and
 batch ID and writes to the genealogy database.
 
-Industry context: even a respected stamper house checks thickness with a
+### Part marking and orientation fiducials
+
+Every metal part gets machine-readable identity, using two complementary
+marks:
+
+- **Dead-wax marks**: matrix codes scribed in the runout area are
+  established industry practice and propagate through the whole chain
+  (father to mother to stamper to every pressed record). Adding a small
+  **angular fiducial** at a defined position in the dead wax costs nothing
+  and makes the part's rotational orientation camera-readable at any stage.
+  Mothers are playable positives and can be scribed directly at their
+  generation.
+- **Back-side laser marks**: a serial or Data Matrix code lasered on the
+  stamper back (outside the pressing surface) identifies the physical part
+  for metrology and genealogy logging, exactly as the optical disc industry
+  marked its stamper backs. This mark does not propagate to records; it
+  pairs with the dead-wax identity.
+
+The galvanic process itself is rotationally symmetric, so orientation never
+needs to be locked through the baths, only tracked, and the fiducial does
+that. The fiducial also gives the inline optical inspection a fixed angular
+anchor for reading matrix codes on finished records, and it would make
+label-to-groove rotation measurable per record. Actively aligning labels at
+the press (vision-guided rotation in the label feed) is feasible but custom
+and currently deprioritized; the fiducial keeps that option open without
+committing to it.
+
+### Industry context
+
+Even a respected stamper house checks thickness with a
 hand micrometer at 10 points on sacrificial blanks, with nothing logged.
 Automated non-contact metrology with per-serial logging is ahead of current
 industry practice, which is exactly the point: it makes every father, mother,