Int. J. Mach. Tools Manufact. Vol. 38, Nos 5-6, pp. 647 656.

1998

~ Pergamon 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Printed in Great Britain
PII: S0890-6955(97)00113-2 0890-6955/98 $19.00 + 0.00

A S S E S S M E N T O F S T E E L S U R F A C E R O U G H N E S S AND W A V I N E S S
IN R E L A T I O N W I T H P A I N T A P P E A R A N C E

J. SCHEERS, M. VERMEULEN, C. DE MARI~, K. MESEURE

OCAS N. V., the Corporate R&D center of the ARBED - SIDMAR Group
Zelzate, Belgium

Abstract
Paint appearance is an important factor in the overall product quality of steel sheet, especially in the
automotive industry. The present paper deals with the functional behaviour of the surface texture
according to paint appearance. The main results on the improvement of paint appearance of outer car
body panels, obtained with coated and uncoated cold rolled steel, textured with EBT-rolls, is reviewed.
There are different methods to relate steel sheet surface texture to the appearance after painting. From the
literature it is found that waviness has a detrimental effect on the surface appearance after painting.
Different roughness and waviness parameters are compared in order to find a good relation with paint
appearance.
The following surface texture parameters are evaluated in this study: roughness parameters Ra, peak
count Pc, waviness parameters Wca and amplitude between 0.5 - 5mm (Fourier analysis) and envelope
parameters motif W and Ra-macro, measured with a spherical stylus of radius 1.5mm.
Classical parameters such as Ra and Pc are only able to evaluate paint appearance for one single texturing
process, and within very limited range. The ability to predict paint appearance by Ra-macro and Wca also
seems to be limited, because of their dependency on the roll texturing technique. Based on extensive
testing, it is suggested that Fourier analysis might be the best approach to predict the appearance after
painting, and this independently of the texturing process.
The results clearly show the improved appearance of Sibetex textured sheets compared to conventional
textured sheets. This is due to the fact that, with Sibetex sheet, a reduction in waviness can be achieved.
J~ 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd

1. Introduction
The visual appearance of the painted steel sheet
surface has always been given close attention
because it is often experienced as a first
expression of the quality of the product towards
the end-user, especially in the automotive and
consumer appliances industry.
The two major objectives of the paint
manufacturer are: first the optimisation of the
chemical and physical properties of the coating
to achieve an optimum corrosion resistance and
second, a perfect visual appearance of the
painted outer panels.
Protecting the steel sheet against environmental
influences was also the main challenge for the
steel manufacturer for many years. More
recently however, sheet steel manufacturers
have also been focusing their attention on the
visual appearance of painted steel sheet as soon
as it was clearly established that there was an
influence of steel sheet topography on
properties such as orange peel and image
clarity. Their interest increased still further
when it became obvious that the requirements
for formability and appearance after painting
were difficult to reconcile. For a non-
deterministic roughness, such as the traditional
shot blast texture, one usually finds that the
higher the roughness, the better the formability,
but the poorer the appearance after painting.
1.1. SurfaceFeatures
Several studies are published in which the
influence of the steel sheet surface on the final
paint appearance is described. From the
literature it is found that the surface appearance
after painting decreases with increasing
waviness [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Surface features with short wavelength
characteristics ( ~ < O.8mm [1] ) are commonly
defined as the 'roughness' characteristics of the
surface. The 'waviness' characteristics are
surface features with spacings larger than the
roughness features (~. > 0.8ram). Waviness is
measured as the difference between the

647
 648 .I Schcers ~,/ ~t/

unfiltered profile and the filtered roughness
plot. As the cut-off of the filter is decreasing,
the waviness profile follows the unfiltered
profile more closely (Figure 1).
Surface Profile
j J ~
_ . . - _ ~
Waviness
Figure 1." Decomposition of the surface profile in
roughness and waviness
In-the US the upper limit on waviness is often
taken to be 8mm, but a standard definition of
waviness has not yet been adopted [ 1].
In the European automotive and painting
industry waviness is sometimes defined to have
wavelengths 0.5mm < ~, < 5mm.
Wavelengths larger than the waviness upper
limit are defined as 'form error' features. [1]
The effect of waviness on the appearance of
painted pans is well-known. Power spectrum
analysis indicates that only undulations with a
wavelength larger than a certain threshold (500
to 800 lam), are important for the paint quality.
The undulations with smaller wavelength
(called roughness) are covered by the paint.
This is not the case for the larger wavelength
undulations, as illustrated in Figure 2.
painting. A relocation technique was used to
carefully track the change of the surface profile
in function of the application of subsequent
coating layers of an automotive coating system.
The sheet texture in Figure 2 is a combination
of a shot blast texture on the tandem mill and an
EBT texture at the temper mill. The waviness
of the substrate can easily be observed. The
/ ' ~ , / ' ~ / ~ ~ t - - . . ~ J ~
cathodic electrocoat, the filler and top coat layer
Roughness
smoothens out the EBT roughness. The valleys
of the waviness however have been connected
and disturb the appearance of the painted
surface.
Numerous contributions can be found in the
literature to search a correlation between a
single 2D-roughness or -waviness parameter
and the appearance after painting [1, 3, 4, 5 ].
To obtain a good paint appearance, traditionally
sheet with low average roughness Ra and high
peak count Pc is used [1]. Figure 2 shows that
waviness rather than roughness disturbs the
paint appearance. The fact that a low Ra is
needed to improve the paint appearance is only
due to the relationship between roughness (Ra)
and waviness (Wca) for random textured sheets.
Therefor more recent studies are considering
the effect of surface waviness on the final
appearance. Waviness parameters often used are
the average waviness Wca or parameters
derived from Fourier techniques, examining the
surface profile by means of a spectral
representation of the surface features (e.g.

I/m
waviness features are extracted from the FFY-
amplitude spectrum). Recently envelope
parameters such as the French motif parameter
W and Ra-macro (using a spherical stylus with
Subetrate Cathodic Filler radius 1.5mm) are introduced. Table 1 summa-
Elect rocoat
rizes all the evaluated parameters in this paper.
Figure 2." Evolution of the surface topography
during the paint process Main users and 'accepted' limits for a good
appearance are also indicated (with [*]:
Three dimensional surface measurements were company requirements).
used to study the evolution of the surface during
Table 1: Topography parameters and specifications
Parameter Wavelen[ths Standard Users Limits
Ra < 2.5mm SEP1940 European car industry Ra < 1.5prn [ 1]
Pc < 2.5mm SEP1940 European car industry Pc > 50pks/cm [1]
pSm German car industry pSm < 350~tm [*]
Ra-macro < 2.5mm Scandinavian car ind. Ra-macro < 0.51am [*]
Wca 0.8mm - 8mm = JIS B0610 USA / Japan
W 0.5mm - 5mm = ISO12085 French car industry W < 1.81am[*]
FFT-amplitude 0.5mm - 5mm Paint Industry
 Steel surface roughness
1.2. Roll Texturing Techniques: from Shot
Blast to EBT
The application of roughness in the production
of steel sheet has a long tradition. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, the
roughening of mill rolls by shot blasting was
introduced. Shot blasting (SB) was found to
remove the directional roughness from the
manual grinding procedures that were used until
then. Steel sheet produced with those roughed
rolls showed better formability and improved
appearance after painting. The shot blast
process was generalised during the fifties. Due
to the difficulties to obtain a reproducible
texture, the Electrical Discharge Texture (EDT)
process was developed which resulted in a very
fine stochastic surface roughness [7].
Another development started at the early
eighties. Sidmar in association with the CRM
and Cockerill Sambre developed the Lasertex
(LT) process for texturing mill rolls by use of a
laser beam. As Lasertex introduced a so-called
deterministic roughness, it can be considered as
an important milestone in the evolution of the
steel sheet surface textures. Since then this
technology has been applied world-wide and
further developed [8].
Recently, again Sidmar was involved in the
development of a fourth mill roll texturing
system: the Electron Beam Texturing (EBT).
The EBT texturing system introduces the fully
deterministic surface texture, applicable to
tandem and temper mill rolling. A detailed
description of the EBT system can be found in
the literature [9].
The four existing roll texturing processes can be
ranked based on the degree of randomness (or
determinism) of the obtained surface profiles.
Shot Blast Texturing and EDT are strongly
random, EBT is fully deterministic. This means
that the texture is build up by a repeating
pattern of peaks and valleys formed by craters
in such a way that the surface can be described
with a limited number of parameters (e.g. crater
distance, crater diameter, depth, type of
pattern .... ) [10]. The introduction of EBT also
made it possible to use deterministic textured
rolls at the tandem mill. The use of a
deterministic EBT texture at the tandem mill
has led to a breakthrough in the development of
steel sheet roughness. In combination with an
EBT texture at the temper mill, the first fully
649
deterministic steel sheet surface texture has
been created : SIBETEX ®.
1.3. Basics of Visual Appearance
Phenomena
The visual appearance of a painted surface
experienced by the end-user is the combination
of many different optical aspects of the paint
layer. The quality of the paint application is
always of first and foremost importance. A
total absence of scratches, dust particles or
other blemish must be achieved. The observer
can be more or less sensitive to the surface
texture of the paint which can still be resolved
by the human eye. The quality of the virtual
image, whereby the observer does not focus the
eye on the paint surface itself, is also of prime
importance. Finally, observers tend to be
sensitive to the intensity of the specular
reflection of the paint layer. From a technical
point of view at least four parameters should be
measured in order to assess the quality of a
paint finish on steel substrates.
These parameters are :
• intensity of the specular reflection (Gloss)
• width of the specular reflection (DOI)
• reflected image distortion (NSIC)
• loss of contrast in the reflected image
(NSIC*)
Tests were carried out to determine which of
the above measured parameters have a strong
correlation with the visual perception of the
image clarity of painted steel sheet [4, 6]. From
the calculated correlation coefficients an
Appearance Index (A.I.) was defined as a
weighted average of gloss, distinctness of
image, image distortion (orange peel) and loss
of contrast.
A.I. = 0.15 Gloss (20 °) + 0.35 DOI
+ 0.25 NSIC + 0.25 NSIC*
This appearance index provides an objective
tool for further research. The maximum value
100 corresponds to a perfect appearance.
Current state-of-the-art automotive paint
systems, applied on the commercial available
sheet qualities for outer panels, are commonly
accepted as good when the calculated index
equals 80 or higher [4, 6].
 650 ,1. Scheers eta/.

2. Experimental Set-up 2.2.1. Roughness

Average roughness Ra, Peak Count Pc and
2.1. Steel Substrates mean spacing Sm are calculated according to
The steel surfaces used in this study were SEP1940-92 (without pivoting skid). The cut-
selected to cover a wide range of different off ~-c is set to 2.5mm (ISO 2RC), with an
characteristics. Different textures (SB, EDT, assessment length of 12.5mm (standard: 5 * ~).
EBT and SIBETEX), cold rolled (CRS) or Zn- For each parameter the mean value of 4
and ZnFe-coated (Hot dip galvanised GI, measurements is taken. The 2 Pc levels are set
galvannealed GA, Electro-galvanised ELO) to -0.5 and +0.5~tm [11].
were tested. 2.2.2. Waviness
Figure 3 shows a box & whisker plot of the For the calculation of the average waviness
average roughness Ra (as per SEP1940-92) for Wca a digital filtering is recommended to
the different textures (polished, Sibetex, EDT separate the roughness features from the
and Shot Blast). All textured steel sheet waviness features (0.8mm < ~.< 8mm) [1]. Two
materials (Shot blast, EDT and Sibetex) have successive filtering operations to simulate this
about the same Ra-range, with exception of a band pass filter are used at OCAS. A phase
few outliers (with Ra = 3.01am for sanitary corrected Gaussian filter (according to
applications). DIN4777) with cut-off 8mm is used to remove
the form error from the unfiltered profile (this
means wavelengths ~. > 8mm). A 0.8mm cut-off
3.0
Gaussian filter is then used to remove ~. <
0.8mm. After tilt removal of this remaining
2.S
'waviness' profile, the mean height Wca is
2,0 calculated. The final assessment length for Wca
l.S
is 40ram (= 5 * ~ (8ram)). Again, 4
measurements are averaged.
1.0
Fourier analysis is used to examine the surface
O.S features by means of a spectral presentation of
0,0 o
the features. Before Fourier transformation, an
Polished SIbelex EDT Shot Blmet
8mm cut-off (Gaussian) filter is used to remove
the form error from the unfiltered profile with a
Polished S~lex EDT Shot Blur
3.G total measuring length of 100mm. The
1 i amplitude spectrum of the remaining profile
2.G -- :
, i results in 500 spectral points between
o ~T
wavelengths 80mm and 1601am. This spectrum
shows the relative weight of surface features
with various wavelengths. In this study the
= E:3 7s~ mean FFT-amplitude between wavelengths of
__ 2s'~
0.S -- i i ' ul~i|n 500~tm and 5mm (= mean value of amplitudes
0.0 n i J of 144 spectral points) is taken into account,
CRS GI GA ELO CRS GI ELO cgs G[
following the European painting guidelines. The
Figure 3." Ra-range of all tested materials mean amplitude of 5 profile measurements is
computed to obtain a statistical significant
2.2. Surface Characterisation value.
A Rank Taylor Hobson Form Talysurf $5 stylus 2.2.3. Envelope Techniques
profilometer with 120L traverse unit is used to The method of filtering and analysis of the
perform 2D topography measurements. motif parameter W is different and not
Five surface traces, 45 ° with respect to the directly comparable with the other parameters
rolling direction, are recorded for each sample (other parameters are all calculated relative to
over a scan length of 100mm. All parameters the mean line) [12]. A motif is a part of a
are computed from the measured profiles after profile between 2 peaks (so every motif also
appropriate filtering. contains a valley?). This motif is characterised
 Steel surface roughness
by means of 3 points and is illustrated with 3
lines: heights Hi and Hi+l and length A (Figure
4).
HjI H defined by applying a state-of-the-art high gloss
AR, or AW~
Figure 4: Definition of a Motif
Hj en Hj÷l : motif heights
T: minimum of Hj / H~j
AR~:Length of roughness motif
AWl: Length of waviness motif
Four successive algorithms try to combine the
motifs to 'stronger', larger motifs (e.g. common
peak < two extremes; new T > 2 'old T's; ...).
Difference between roughness and waviness is
defined by means of so-called operators:
roughness operator AR = 0.5ram and waviness
operator A W = 5mm. The length of a motif
always needs to be smaller than the operator
(e.g. length of waviness motif < 5mm). The
waviness profile is found by combining the
roughness motif heights. Motif parameter W
calculates the mean height of the waviness
motifs. An assessment length of 30mm is used.
In this contribution, the mean motif W value of
5 measurements is used.
R a - m a c r o is the average roughness (cfr. Ra)
measured with a spherical stylus with radius r =
1.5mm without skid [3]. Ra-macro is calculated
in a similar way as the average roughness
according to SEP1940-2 (cut-off ~ is set to
2.5mm (ISO 2RC), with an assessment length of
12.Smm (standard: 5 * ~ ) , the mean value of 4
measurements is taken) [3].
2.3. Definition of high quality paint
appearance and panel preparation
The initial state and nature of the metal
substrate contributes to a large extent to the
appearance of a painted surface. It must
however always be kept in mind that a paint
system can, by virtue of its formulation or
application conditions, also be the cause of
surface roughness and waviness, not related to
the substrate waviness. Therefor a reference
system is needed for further analysis.
651
For this type of research, the paint system is
often applied on a glass plate because the initial
roughness and waviness are very low. The
disadvantage of this method however is that a
potential influence of the phosphate layer and
the electropaint is not taken into account. For
this reason a high quality paint appearance was
automotive paint system on polished steel
panels. This reference system was measured
and the calculated appearance index reached the
level of 92. This value was considered as our
target objective in the development of an
optimum roughness for excellent appearance
after painting.
All 60 materials, including the polished
samples, are painted using the same tri-cation
phosphate pre-treatment, paint system, applica-
tion method and layer thickness. For each
substrate all appearance parameters are mea-
sured on 10 painted samples. The average of the
readings is used to calculate the overall
appearance index. Although the same substrate
and paint system may be used, it is well-known
within the automotive industry, that there can be
a substantial difference in the paint appearance
on vertical parts in comparison with horizontal
parts. Therefor the laboratory paint application
and curing is sometimes carried out on the
panels in both horizontal and vertical
orientation.
3. Results
3.1. Texture and Paint Appearance
Figure 5 compares the paint quality of all
materials listed in table 2 using the defined
appearance index A.I. by means of Box &
Whisker plots. The left figure shows the range
of A.I. found for all materials (non coated and
Zn-coated) with the polished reference material
and the three different texture types (Sibetex,
EDT and Shot Blast) on horizontal parts. Effect
of the coating itself (non coated, hot dip
galvanised GI, galvannealed GA or electrolytic
galvanised ELO) on the paint quality A.I. is
shown on the right.
Figure 3 already showed that all the
investigated textures have about the same
roughness-range.
 652 ,1. Scheers et td.

100 IOO,
Polllhacl Slbetex EDT Shol B l o t
tO o

80

-4

50

4O

3O
PoIllhtd Sbtlz EDT Shot Blair CRS GI GA ELO CRS GI ELO CRS GI

Figure 5." Paint quality of several sheets with different coatings and surface textures

The left figure shows that all the Sibetex Figure 6 shows the appearance index A.I. as a
textured sheets (this means either cold rolled, function of Ra and Pc.
galvanised, galvannealed or electro-galvanised)
have an excellent paint quality, comparable to I ]
• .:,
that of a polished sheet that was used as a
a0 _ ii ~llt II1- . . . . . ~ --
reference. For the same roughness range,
Sibetex significantly improves the appearance • AAi • •
compared to Shot Blast or EDT. Besides, EDT
and Shot Blast show a much larger range in A.I.
comparing to Sibetex. 4o
Galvanised coated sheet (GI) is known to be
less adapted for outer panels. Although the
2000
Sibetex Galvanised sheet is not as good as the R, (pml
other Sibetex sheets (somewhat larger A.I. - 100

range), the improvement by applying EBT is

most pronounced for this type of coating. 8o

'A
3.2. Topography and Paint appearance
m~
In this topic a study is performed to find an i ~ • " ~ T .......
overall correlation between the paint
appearance (A.I.) and some roughness and 4o

waviness parameters, independent on the ! I

texture or coating. The paint is applied on 2o
~o 40 eo
horizontal parts. Pc(pkg/cm)

Roughness parameters (Ra, Pc, Sm), waviness

parameters (Wca, FFT amplitude between 0.5
and 5mm) and envelope parameters (motif W
and Ra-macro) are compared to the appearance
index A.I..
The aim is to highlight these parameters which
can predict effectively the paint quality.
3.2.1. Roughness parameters and Paint
Appearance
Relation between Ra, Pc, Sm and Paint
Appearance
In the literature it is often described that steel
sheet with low Ra and high peak count Pc lead
to a better appearance. In the European car
industry it is frequently requested to have a
steel sheet with Ra < 1.51am and Pc > 50pks/cm.
Figure 6: Appearance Index A.L versus Ra (top) and
peak count Pc (bottom)
There is no general correlation between the
paint appearance (A.I.) and Ra. The polished
material, with the lowest Ra-value gives the
best appearance after painting. Stochastic
textured materials such as Shot Blast and EDT
indeed show a decrease of the paint appearance
with increasing Ra. On the contrary, with
Sibetex, the paint appearance becomes almost
independent of Ra. A specification limiting Ra
< 1.51am to assure good appearance is not valid:
Shot Blast and EDT-materials with Ra between
1 and 1.51am already show A.I. < 80%. Sibetex
with even larger Ra-values between 1.5 and
21Jm, still show an A.I. of about 85. With this
 Steel surface roughness 653

Ra-range, the stochastic surfaces (Shot Blast negative skewness. Only a small decrease of the
and EDT) show much lower A.I. values of appearance A.I. with increasing Sm is found.
about 70. Shot Blast and EDT surfaces with Sm-values
Two materials (Shot Blast and EDT) with larger than 1501am already give a poor paint
extreme Ra-level (>3.01am) used in sanitary quality (A.I. < 80). Moreover, a large scatter in
applications are tested as a reference. They both A.I. - values is found for Sm > 2001am for Shot
show the worst appearance (A.I. ~ 40). Blast.
For stochastic textures (EDT, Shot Blast) an
3.2.2. Waviness parameters and Paint
increase of A.I. with the peak count Pc can be
Appearance
found.
As expected, the three investigated roughness
The traditional trend, found with stochastic
parameters (Ra, Pc and Sin) do not show a
textures, that a high peak count value results in
sufficient correlation with the appearance after
a good paint appearance, is no longer valid for
painting. The painting smoothens out the
Sibetex. It seems to be difficult to define a Pc-
roughness of the substrate surface. Features
limit for good paint appearance (as in the case
with longer wavelength undulations (waviness)
of Ra). Sibetex materials with Pc < 50pks/cm
are not filtered out as effectively by the paint
still give an A.I. of about 90.
and remain present on the surface of the paint
A problem arises from the definition of the peak
layer. This is the reason why surface waviness
count. Pc-values are affected by the choice of
has a strong impact on the appearance. The
the bandwidth (in SEP1940-92: _+ 0.51am). The
following investigated parameters (Waviness
polished material has a Pc = 0 pks/cm because
parameters or envelope parameters) are said to
the surface peaks never exceed the 2 reference
have a better correlation with the paint
lines +_ 0.51am. Pc (and Ra too) is a parameter
appearance.
calculated relative to the mean line (this means
sum of profile areas above and below mean line Influence o f waviness p a r a m e t e r Wca on P a i n t
are equal). For Sibetex materials with high Appearance
bearing ratio (negative skewness), this mean Figure 8 shows the paint appearance (A.I.) as a
line is placed closer to the surface. This leads to function of the average waviness Wca in the
a bad peak count with lower Pc-values. range of 0.8mm < ~ < 8mm.
It is suggested to use the mean spacing Sm to
eliminate the problem of the bandwidth in the L . , ! I
definition of Pc. Sm is also related to the mean
line but does not need a bandwidth. Sm gives
the mean distance of the peaks relative to the
mean line. -- F .......... T- - i~.-- T ....... ] . . . . . .

Figure 7 shows the appearance index A.I. versus / i I I /..--~1

the mean spacing Sm.
'°r........... ! ......... ........... .L_OI

eo .....
l.%, 't
i
]
I
,-

I
I

- - V - -
I
I

I
T
i"

i
.

li
I
;
i

i - - * - - ~

~
,!
•

-- ~
I
I
l

!
--
2.0
t
':!o

.......... ~ ....
!
o!,

& -- E
,!o
W©l ( . m )

--
!

4-
..h ~.b

--
,!,

- I - ~
,.°

....
:

1.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2o :
so
i
too 160
i [
200 Ix 300 ~0 ............ 7--- 7.- R-F - t---
Sm tpml ..... 7 - 7 - • . . . . T---
Figure 7: Appearance Index A.I. versus mean
::
spacing Sm °~o" °!, ,!o ,', ,!o ,!, ,!....
R1 ( p l )
In general, a decrease of the paint appearance
with Sm is found. Sibetex materials show a Figure 8." Paint appearance A.I. versus Wca (top)
rather small mean spacing Sm, due to the and Wca versus Ra (bottom)
 654 J. Scheers et J/.

In general, the paint appearance A.I. decreases Relation between FFT-amplitude (0.5 a n d 5mm)
with increasing Wca. Although, no overall and Paint Appearance
correlation can be found for all textures and Figure 10 compares the paint appearance (A.I.)
coatings. The polished reference material with with the mean FFT amplitude (between 0.5 and
lowest Wca, gives the best appearance A.I. = 5mm).
92. Stochastic textures (shot blast, EDT) show a
strong decrease of A.I. with increasing waviness
Wca. For Sibetex, this decrease is less
pronounced. Even for Wca larger than 0.51am,
8O
all Sibetex materials show a paint quality A.I. >
80. The use of stochastic surfaces with the same
Wca-level result in a poor paint appearance (A.I 60

<< 80).
An explanation can be found in Figure 8 4O

(bottom) where Wca is plotted versus the

average roughness Ra. In general one can ZO
O0 01 02 03 04
observe that Wca increases together with Ra. FFT-.mpliludl (~lm)

The polished steel panel with low Ra, does not 06

show waviness (Wca <<). For stochastic

surfaces such as EDT and shot blast, a strong
increase of Wca with Ra is found. Due to the
stochasticy of the shot blast and EDT methods,
a wide range of topographic wavelengths is
introduced during texturing. Waviness and ~02
roughness are related in such a case. This is the
only reason why a (relative) good correlation °' • i F - ~- I • sh,,o,o,,I
can be found between roughness (Ra) and paint o°oo oIs i o: i s, ~ o; i
2~, 3 0! 3S
appearance for random surfaces. R I Ipm)

Deterministic texturing, such as Sibetex,

permits the optimisation of sheet textures with
large roughness values for severe deep drawing
applications, without introducing waviness to
preserve a good paint quality. Sibetex shows
small Wca-values (< 0.41am) for Ra's up to
1.51am. Some Sibetex materials with Ra >
1.5Jam show somewhat larger waviness amounts
(0.5 < Wca < 0.61am). This waviness amount is
introduced by profile-parts with different
(average) heights. The profile passes
successively through areas with a 'low' level
(EBT crater valleys) and areas with a 'higher'
level (in-between the EBT craters). This is an
artificial waviness introduced by the filtering
according to the mean line concept (Figure 9).
This contribution of artific ll 'waviness'
features will hardly.effect the paint quality.
Figure 9." Sibetex and waviness
Figure 10: Appearance Index A.I. vs mean FFT-
amplitude between 0.5 and 5ram (top) and
FFT-amplitude vs Ra (bottom)
A good correlation between the mean FFT
amplitude (0.5 - 5mm) and the appearance index
is found. This correlation between the
amplitude and A.I., shows only little scatter and
is the best among the tested parameters. A
correlation coefficient of 0.92 is found. A mean
FFT-amplitude limit of 0.251am can be specified
to preserve a good paint quality. However, such
a 'limit value' can only be used with the same
paint system and the same application
conditions (horizontal panels).
Materials with low waviness (polished sheet,
Sibetex) show the best paint appearance. Shot
blast and EDT with high FFT amplitude result
in a low appearance index. Sibetex always
shows a lower waviness amount compared to
shot blast or EDT for the same roughness Ra
level. Both stochastic surfaces (Shot blast,
EDT) show the same level of waviness for a
given roughness Ra.

3.2.3. Envelope Parameters and Paint
Appearance
Relation between Motif W (0.5 and 5mm) and
Paint Appearance
Figure 11 shows the appearance index A.I.
versus waviness motif W.
100
"...~ ; : . .
8...................... !?* ..................................... ......................
AA
~ 6O
1 2
Figure 11: Paint appearance (A.I.) versus motif W
m i
. i
• .s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1, ~
o s to
Figure 12." Influence of form error removal on W
(top: LS Line; bottom: 2nd polyn.)
One can not find a good correlation between
A.I. and waviness motif W. A motif W-limit of
1.81am seems to hold only for stochastic
surfaces. Sibetex materials with W up to 41am
still show an excellent appearance index A.I..
Waviness motif W seems to be strongly
dependent on the form error (in this case those
large wavelength undulations with ~, > 5mm).
This problem can be explained by the fact that
no upper cut-off limit is specified in the ISO
12085 standard for measuring the motif
parameters. Only a LS-line procedure (tilt
removal) is recommended. Measurements
performed on steel panels with 'large' form
error features (e.g. curved panel) will show
large motif W values. This is illustrated in
Figure 12: the polished sheet panel shows a
smaller W after removal of the form error by a
2nd order polynomial operation (W = 0.211am
compared to W = 0.581am for only LS line
removal). The form error itself will hardly
Steel surface roughness 655
influence the paint quality. Therefor no good
correlation between W and A.I. is found.
Further research on form removals is needed.
Relation between Ra -macro and Paint
Appearance
In the beginning of the nineties, a new
•
measuring method called Ra-macro has been
presented to find a better correlation with the
:
paint appearance and especially with the orange
peel on vertical panels. With Ra-macro a
spherical stylus with a large radius of 1.5ram is
used as a mechanical filter. The mechanical
filter will follow the profile peaks and will not
record valleys with distances smaller than the
radius (1.5mm). These small valleys are not
3 4 5 s ?
w (~m)
dominating the appearance as they will be filled
by the paint. Profile wavelengths smaller than
0.8mm (roughness), which will be covered by
u4,vt ~ D o It i
the paint film, are filtered by the stylus.
Wavelengths between 0.8 and 3.5ram
(waviness, important for orange peel) will be
; i
highlighted. Ra-macro is proposed to be a
measure of the peak density and the peak height
variation of the surface profile. Hald6n [3]
found a very good correlation between Ra-
macro and tension (= measure of orange peel).
~ ..... ;.............. The Ra-macro concept seems therefor to be a
ss 2o
~ ~
2s x
~.o
very promising method. It combines the
advantage of the motif W concept, namely to
construct an envelope on the top of the profile
peaks, with a filtering to remove the form error.
Research to evaluate Ra-macro with the OCAS
appearance index A.I. need to be done.
4. Conclusions
The paint quality of several materials with Shot
Blast, EDT or Sibetex texture has been studied.
Different coatings were taken into account (non
coated, hot dip (GI) and electrogalvanised
(ELO), galvannealed (GA). A high gloss
automotive paint system was applied
horizontally on all materials.
Paint quality was characterised by means of a
weighted average of gloss, DOI, orange peel
and contrast loss: appearance index A.I.. A high
quality paint appearance was defined by
applying the paint system on a polished
reference steel panel resulting in a A.I. = 92.
Different roughness and waviness parameters
are compared with the appearance index A.I. in
order to find a good correlation with the paint
quality.
 656
Roughness parameters, such as Ra, Pc and Sm
give a rather poor overall correlation with the
surface appearance after painting. This can be
explained by the fact that the fine roughness
features are covered by the paint. Although, for
stochastic surfaces (Shot Blast, EDT) one can
find that small Ra- and high Pc-values are
beneficial for the paint appearance. With
Sibetex, the appearance index A.I. becomes
nearly independent of Ra, Pc or Sm.
Some waviness parameters show an improved
correlation with the appearance index.
Waviness parameter Wca and especially FFT-
analysis can be used to predict the paint
appearance.
For stochastic surfaces a strong decrease of A.I.
was found with increasing waviness Wca. For
these random surfaces Wca is related with the
roughness Ra. High roughness values also result
in an increased waviness amount which reduce
the paint appearance.
Best overall correlation was found between A.I.
and (for all textures and coatings) the mean
FFl'-amplitude between 500tam and 5ram. The
appearance index A.I. decreases with increasing
mean FFT-amplitude. A correlation coefficient
rA2 of 0.92 was found.
The Motif parameter W gives a rather poor
correlation with the appearance index A.I..
Motif W also seems to be strongly dependent on
form error features (i.e. bending) which do not
influence the paint quality.
The best paint quality is obtained with Sibetex
deterministic textures. For the same roughness
level Ra, Sibetex always gives the lowest
waviness amount (Wca or mean FFT-
amplitude). Deterministic texturing is the only
way to avoid waviness. The inherent variability
of the random texturing methods (Shot Blast,
EDT) is responsible for introducing a wide
range of topographic wavelengths on the roll
surface. The substrate waviness features can not
be masked by the paint film and have a
detrimental effect on the final paint appearance.
5. References
1. A. Bastawros, J.G. Speer, G. Zerafa, R.
Krupitzer, Effects of Steel Surface Texture on
Appearance after Painting, SAE Technical
Paper Series 930032
J. Scheers et al.
2. M. Sakurai, J.I. Inagaki, M. Yamashita,
Effects of Surface Texture of Galvannealed
steel sheet on Image Clarity after Painting, in
Proceedings of the Galvatech '95 Conference,
599, (1995)
3. M. Hald6n, J.O. Nilsson, L.E. Brattstrom, S.
Holmgren, Characterisation of Steel Sheet
Surfaces in order to predict Surface
Appearance after Painting, in Proceedings of
the Rolls 2000 Conference, 196-205, (March
28-29 1996)
4. J. Scheers, C. De Mar& K. Meseure,
SIBETEX: Steel's Contribution to an
improved Paint Appearance for Outer Car
Body Panels, Proceedings IBEC'96, 24,
(1996)
5. C. Lahaye, An Empirical Method to Predict
Paint Appearance Starting with Substrate
Roughness Data, Proceedings IBEC'96, 24,
(1996)
6. K. Meseure, J. Scheers, C. De Mar6, Paint
Appearance in relation to Surface
Topography, Sibetex 3 Seminar, (October 24,
1996 OCAS Zelzate, Belgium)
7. D.K. Aspinwall, M.L.H. Wise, K.J.
Stout,T.H.A. Goh ..... Electrical Discharge
Texturing, Int. J. Mach. Tools Manufact., 32,
183-192, (1992)
8. J. Defourny, P. Jodogne, Lasertex: un concept
de rugosit6: du laminoir/t la tfle rev&ue, La
Revue de Mdtallurgie, 439-446, (Mai 1992)
9. A. Hamilius, H. Deroo, L. De Graef, D. De
Soete, Y. Gadeyne, Gravure des cylindres de
laminage ~ l'aide d'un faisceau d'61ectrons, La
revue de M~tallurgie, 1083-1091, (1992)
10. M. Vermeulen, J. Scheers, C. De Mar6,
Characterisation of EBT surfaces, Sibetex 2
Seminar, (October 20, 1994 OCAS Zelzate,
Belgium)
11. Messung des Aritmischen Mittenrauwert Ra
und der Spitzenzahl Pc an Kaltgewalzten
Flacherzeugnissen aus Stahl, SEP 1940 Stahl
Eisen Priifflolatt, Verein Deutscher
Eisenhiittenleute, (January 1992)
12. F. Fritzsche, T. Hartmann, E. Heldt,
Erfahrungen bei der Anwendung der Motif-
Methode zur Beschreibung Technischer
Oberfl~ichen, Proceedings 9th lnternationales
Oberfliichen-kolloquium, (29-31 Januar 1996,
Chemnitz)