406 PART 2 Measuring Devices

4.14 SURFACE-FINISH MEASUREMENT

The "gross" part dimensions determined by the CMMs of Sec. 4.13 are not the only
significant measurements required on manufactured parts. Surface characteristics,
 CHAPTER 4 Motion and Dimensional Measurement 407

Figure 4.102
Definitions of surface-finish features.

on a more microscopic scale, may be vitally important with regard to friction, wear,
fatigue resistance, cleanliness in food processing, leakage in seals, paintability, scat-
tering losses on optical surfaces, substrate surface flaws in microcircuits, and visual
appearance.261 The study of surface properties is related to the larger area called
tribology, which includes all aspects of friction, wear, and lubrication. The deviation
of an actual surface from the theoretical ideal is described in terms of lay, flaws,
waviness, and roughness (Fig. 4.102). Lay is the directional aspect of the dominant
surface pattern, usually determined by the production process. Flaws are isolated
defects which occur at infrequent intervals. Waviness plus roughness is called
profile and is the total vertical excursion, at a cross section, from a fixed datum,
with waviness being the long-period component and roughness the short-period

261
R. D. Young, "The National Measurement System for Surface Finish," NBSIR75-927, 1976.
408 PART 2 Measuring Devices

Figure 4.103
Stylus instruments with fixed or floating references.

(closely spaced) one. In many cases, only roughness is of interest, so the simpler
instruments may provide data on it alone. More comprehensive instruments allow
one to measure the total excursion (profile) roughness and/or waviness by selection
of instrument modes.
Most surface-finish measurements262 are made with stylus instruments; how-
ever, optical types are available (though expensive) when noncontacting methods
are necessary. Typical diamond styli have tip radii of about 0.0001 in, exert about
0.0001 to 0.001 lbf of force on the specimen, and can reach to the bottom of most
scratch marks more than 0.0002 in wide. High-resolution units for very fine
surfaces such as gage blocks use 0.00005-in radius and reduced stylus force. The
stylus size cannot be reduced much below these values because the tip pressure
begins to exceed the yield point of most materials, causing plastic deformation of
the measured surface. This places a fundamental limitation on the horizontal reso-
lution of these instruments. To measure roughness along a chosen line on a surface,
the stylus is dragged along this line at a fixed slow speed (0.0001 to 0.1 in/s), using
sufficient stylus force and slow enough scan speed that the stylus faithfully follows
the surface. The stylus may be vertically guided by an attached shoe or skid,
whereby the datum for the measurement changes as the shoe follows the local
waviness and the stylus measures mainly roughness. If the total profile is to be
measured, a shoeless probe is used and an absolute external datum is fixed by the
traversing mechanism (see Fig. 4.103). When roughness along a curved line must

262
"Surface Texture," ASME Standard, B46.1-1985; H. Dagnall, "Exploring Surface Texture," Rank Taylor
Hobson Ltd., Rolling Meadows, IL, 708-290-8090 (www.taylor-hobson.com); D. J. Whitehouse,
"Handbook of Surface Metrology," IOP Publishing, 1994; D. J. Whitehouse and W. L. Wang, "Dynamics
and Trackability of Stylus Systems," Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs., vol. 210, pp. 159-165, 1996; X. Liu et al.,
"Improvement of the Fidelity of Surface Measurement by Active Damping Control," Meas. Sci. Techno.,
vol.4, 1993, pp. 1330-1340.
 CHAPTER 4 Motion and Dimensional Measurement 409

Figure 4.104
Three-dimensional microtopography of machined surface.

be measured (bearing balls, gear teeth, etc.), suitable curved external datum mech-
anisms are used.
Although a few instruments use the moving-coil velocity transducer to obtain a
stylus-motion signal, such devices give no signal unless the surface is being scanned
and they cannot be statically calibrated. A preferred approach is to use an LVDT or
similar displacement transducer, which can be made very sensitive for the small
full-scale deflections needed (< 0.050 in). Since most instruments have a built-in
graphic recorder, it is conventional to quote sensitivities in terms of magnification
between inches of stylus motion and inches of recorder pen motion. For the vertical
(roughness) axis, maximum magnification approaches 1 million, while the limited
horizontal resolution (caused by the stylus-tip size limitation mentioned earlier)
leads to maximum magnification of about 500 on the horizontal (scan) axis. Since
the vertical and horizontal magnifications are often quite different, direct visual
interpretation of the graphs must keep this in mind. Some instruments allow scan-
ning over a horizontal plane by "indexing" successive x scans a precise amount in
the y direction and "stacking" these traces vertically on an XY plotter. Figure 4.104
shows such a measurement on a "flat" surface produced by the electric-discharge
machining process, using a z magnification of 500 and x, y magnification of 200.
410 PART 2 Measuring Devices

Figure 4.105
Definitions of roughness parameters.

When the stylus is moved horizontally at a fixed and known speed, the surface
profile "becomes a function of time," and we can use standard time-function filter-
ing methods to perform the spatial filtering mentioned earlier as a means of sepa-
rating roughness and waviness. For example, a sinusoidal profile of wavelength
0.005 in when scanned at 0.05 in/s becomes a 10-Hz time signal. Usually the filters
are adjustable, allowing a selection of cutoff wavelengths, a typical selection being
0.003, 0.01, 0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 in. For roughness measurement, wavelengths longer
than the quoted value are filtered out; for waviness, those shorter.
For many practical measurements, the roughness profile is processed to obtain
values for certain roughness parameters, which can then be compared numerically
with goals or specifications to decide whether the surface meets some functional
requirement. Relating machine functional requirements (such as wear life, friction
torque, heat generation, scoring and galling, etc.) to numerical values of roughness
parameters is at present more art and experience than science and so perhaps is a
fruitful area for research. The most common parameters are Ra (the average absolute
value of the profile excursions from the mean line) and Rq (the rms value), as
defined in Fig. 4.105.263 Instruments offer a selection of sampling lengths L, with a
typical set being 0.021, 0.07, 0.21, 0.70, and 2.1 in. Usually Ra or Rq is measured
5 times (over five consecutive values of L), and an average is computed. Some other
parameters used less frequently (Rmax, R,, R,m, Rpm) are also defined in the figure.
In addition to functional criteria, roughness parameters, such as Ra, are related to
production time/cost (Fig. 4.106).264
263
M. Brock, "Fourier Analysis of Surface Roughness," B&K Tech. Rev., pp. 3-45, November 3, 1983; Brull
& Kjaer, Marlborough, MA.
264
Ibid.
 CHAPTER 4 Motion and Dimensional Measurement 411

Figure 4.106
Roughness related to machining process and cost.

We conclude this section with a brief description of an optical surface-finish

instrument (see Fig. 4.107).265 The instrument uses enhanced phase-measurement
interferometry. Light reflected from the object under test interferes with light

265
Quantitative Micro-Surface Measurement Systems," 1/86-5M, Wyco Corp., Tucson, AZ, 520-741-1044
(www.wyko.com).
412 PART 2 Measuring Devices

Figure 4.107
Optical surface-finish measurement.

reflected from the internal-reference surface, which is smooth within 4 to 8 A (0.4

to 0.8 nm) or 1.5 A ("supersmooth" reference needed for very smooth test objects).
An interference fringe pattern is visible through a microscope and is also focused on
a photodetector array (1024 linear elements for the two-dimensional instrument,
256 X 256 area elements for the three-dimensional one). The entire interferometer
is mounted on a piezoelectric micropositioner capable of making precise, tiny incre-
ments of motion under computer control. Each successive increment causes an
additional small phase shift in the interferometer and a change in the fringe pattern,
which can be interpreted by the computer in terms of measured object-surface
profile. By using a variety of interferometers (Michelson, Mirau, Linnik) instru-
ments with a range of specifications are available. The profile length ranges from
about 9 to 0.0667 mm; however, a computer-controlled XY specimen table can
extend this. The spatial sampling interval is from 27 mm to 0.2 /mm; the working
distance is 12 mm to 0.2 mm. The maximum surface heights are 8 to 0.54 /xm, verti-
cal resolution is 1 to 3 A, maximum surface slopes are 0.26° to 54°. Extensive soft-
ware and color graphics are available to compute and display a wide variety of
surface characteristics.