Ch-11 : Surface Roughness

Arijit Sen
Faculty
Department of Mechanical Engineering
IUBATInternational University of Business
Agriculture and Technology

 Surface: confined by a boundary which

separates part from another part.
Actual surface: surface actually obtained after
machining process.
Nominal surface: It is a theoretical
geometrically perfect surface which does not
exists in practice.

Surface roughness:
Surface roughness: Departure from perfect
smoothness is called roughness. Roughness refers
to relatively finely spaced irregularities such as
might be produced by action of cutting tool.
Surface sometimes refers as a primary texture.
This is also known as micro geometrical
deviation.
This may be caused from different machining
process e.g., grinding boring honing, supper
lapping reaming etc.

Some of the important properties

which depends on surface roughness
Wear resistance
Corrosion resistances
Fatigue resistance
Absorption characteristics
Hardness
Lubrication

Engineers give utmost importance to surface

finish: reliability, aesthetic, durability.

The factors affecting surface roughness are

Vibration
Material of workpiece
Type of machining
Rigidity o the system; consisting of machine tool,
cutting tool and work.
Type, form, material and sharpness of the cutting
tool.
Cutting condition i.e., feed speed and depth of
cut.
Type of coolant used.

 Primary texture: When surface roughness is

caused by the action of the cutting tool used
to produce the surface.
Secondary texture: the waviness is called
secondary texture caused by for imperfection
of the cutting tool or machine e.g., vibration
due to grinding wheel.
Roughness height: it is the arithmetical
average deviation expressed in micro inches or
micrometer normal to the imaginary normal
line running through the roughness profile.

Methods:
Initially it was done by sight and touch method, sight and
touch do enable one surface to be compared with another
to a degree of accuracy satisfactory for many functional
requirements. Therefore the following parameters are
specified to evaluate or asses surface roughness:

Root Mean Square Value or RMS value

Centre Line Average (CLA) or arithmetic mean deviation.
Maximum peak to valley height, denoted by Rt or Rmax
The average of five highest peak and five deepest valley,
denoted by Rz.
The average or leveling depth of the profile denoted by Rp.

The two most accepted value of surface roughness

evaluation is RMS and CLA value. The average depth of the
profile is rarely used.