Method for determining a characteristic of a surface layer of a fuser element

A method for determining a characteristic of a surface layer of a fuser element for fusing a marking material on a recording medium in a printing system, the printing system comprising a capacitive probe comprising a first electrode and a second electrode, the second electrode being arranged adjacent to the first electrode in order to form a capacitor, the first electrode and the second electrode in operation both being arranged adjacent to and opposing the surface layer of the fuser element, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) performing a capacitive measurement on the surface layer of the fuser element by the first electrode and the second electrode of the capacitive probe;
• b) determining a characteristic of the surface layer of the fuser element based on the capacitive measurement of step a);
• wherein the capacitive probe further comprises a dielectric surface layer, wherein step a) comprises positioning the dielectric surface layer of the capacitive probe in contact with the surface layer of the fuser element in order to form a capacitor with the dielectric surface layer between both the first electrode and the second electrode of the capacitive probe and the surface layer of the fuser element.