Surface Roughness.

Presented By:
Dr. Rehman Akhtar
Lecture No: 03

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Back Ground
• An engineering component may be cast, forged, drawn, welded or
stamped, etc.
• All the surfaces may not have functional requirements and need not
be equally finished
• Some surfaces (owing to their functional requirements) need
additional machining that needs to be recorded on the drawing
Surface Texture
• Surface texture describes the variation of the surface from a perfect surface

• Surface texture is made up of

Roughness
Waviness.
Lay
Flaws

Note: The term surface texture is preferable to surface finish as surface finish
implies coatings and finishing techniques
(Painting, chrome plating etc)
Surface Texture Effects
•The appearance
• The finer the texture the higher the aesthetic value
•The function
• Some functions require a fine texture
•The dimensional tolerances possible
• The finer the texture the greater the degree of dimensional accuracy possible
•The cost
• The finer the texture the greater the cost to produce
Surface Texture

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 Surface Texture

⚫ Repetitive and/or
random deviations
from the nominal
surface of an
object
⚫ It is measured in
µm

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 Four Elements of Surface Texture
Roughness - small, finely spaced deviations from nominal surface
• Determined by material characteristics and processes that formed the
surface
Waviness - deviations of much larger spacing
• Waviness deviations occur due to work deflection, vibration, tooling, and
similar factors
• Roughness is superimposed on waviness.
Lay - the direction of the roughness on a newly manufactured
surface. The roughest profile will be perpendicular to the lay.
Flaws - small scratches, cracks, inclusions, etc.

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Roughness
The closely spaced peaks and valleys produced by the machining
process
Roughness consists of surface irregularities, which result from the
various machining process. These irregularities combine to form
surface texture.
The action of the cutting tool, chemical action, polishing, lapping, and
the structure of the material all contribute to the roughness of the
surface.
Waviness
Repeated widely spaced irregularities generally resulting from machine
vibrations or to external environmental factors.
It may result from such factors as machine or work deflection,
vibration, chatter, heat treatment, or warping strains.
Lay
Lay is the dominate pattern of marks left on the surface arising from machining processes (tool type, feed rate,
and machine type) Indicated by symbol

Plane of Projection

Parallel Perpendicular Diagonal

Multi Circular Radial

Flaws
• Discrete or irregular infrequent irregularities these could be
scratches, pits or cracks
Roughness Grade Numbers
Roughness Average in Micro meters (Ra)
can also be expressed as a
Roughness Grade Number (N)

Higher the Roughness grade

Number/Roughness value…… more
rough will be the surface.
 Drawing Symbols
Machining process optional in Symbol has an angle of 60 degrees and an open top with two
producing a product uneven sides. Basic shaped symbol.

Removal of material required in This symbol has a bar added to the top of the standard
producing a product (turning) shaped symbol.

Removal of material not

This symbol is a basic shaped symbol with a circle added in
permitted in producing a
the groove.
product (forging, pressing)

Basic symbol with a bar added to the top of the

Special surface feature right hand line.
required in producing a
product
 Surface Texture

(1) Surface texture obtained by any manufacturing process (e.g., turning, grinding, plating, bending).

(2) Surface texture obtained by material removal by machining Operation (e.g., turning, drilling, Milling)

(3) Surface texture obtained by WITHOUT removal of material (e.g..casting surfaces, welding faces, pressing)

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 INDICATION OF SURFACE TEXTURE

The basic symbol consists of two legs of unequal length

inclined at approximately 60’ to the line representing the
considered surface
The symbol must be represented by thin line

If the removal of material by machining is required, a bar is

added to the basic symbol,

If the removal of material is not permitted,

a circle is added to the basic symbol.

When special surface characteristics have to

be indicated, a line is added to the longer arm of any of the above
symbols,
 Drawing Symbol Notation

a = Roughness Grade b=Production Method

Number/Roughness value
C= Sampling Length

e=Machining Allowance (f)= Other Roughness Values

d= Direction of Lay (direction of the

tool travel)
 Indication of Surface Roughness

The value or values defining the principal criterion of roughness are added to the
symbols

a- surface roughness value

Roughness a obtained by any Roughness a obtained by removal of Roughness a shall be obtained

production process material by machining without removal of any material

If it is necessary to impose maximum

and minimum limits of the principal criterion of surface
roughness, both values shall be shown

maximum limit (a1) ;minimum limit (a2).

Drawing Symbol Notation
Surface finish grade is
shown

Surface finish value is

Surface finish grades specified
Average Values For Processes
Process Ra in µm

50 25 12.5 6.3 3.2 1.6 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.025
Gas Cutting
Shaping
Drilling
Milling

Reaming
Turning
Grinding
Lapping

Average

Possible
Machining Allowance
• This is the amount of material that can be removed to achieve
desired surface texture
 Surfaces
• No surface is perfectly smooth, but the better the surface
quality, the longer a product generally lasts, and the better
is performs.
• Surface texture can be difficult to analyze quantitatively.
Two surfaces may be entirely different, yet still provide the
same CLA or (Ra) value.
• Recent developments in production technique, and
metrology equipment have made it possible to specify and
measure surface quality.

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 Measure of Roughness

• A simple measure of roughness is the average area per unit

length that is off the center line (mean). We will call this the
Centre Line Average (CLA), or Arithmetic Average (Ra), the
units are μ inches.

• To calculate the roughness using samples at evenly spaced

positions (1),

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 The roughness can also be calculated by area (2),

In both cases the mean line is located so the sum of areas

above the line is equal to the sum of areas below the line.
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 As an example we can examine a surface that has a
triangular profile

We can find the surface roughness using heights,

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 Note the results are the same with both methods. These
numbers may vary significantly if the height method does
not take enough samples for a rougher surface texture.

Note:
1- Rz
2- 1000 mm = 1 µm
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 Why Surfaces is Important? (Applications)
• Aesthetic reasons.
• Friction and wear depend on surface characteristics.
• Surfaces affect mechanical and physical properties.
• Assembly of parts is affected by their surfaces.
• Smooth surfaces make better electrical contacts.

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 Measuring Surface Roughness
• Observation and touch - the human finger is very perceptive to
surface roughness
• Stylus based equipment - very common
• Interferometer - uses light wave interference patterns
 Observation Methods
• Human perception is highly relative. In other words, without
something to compare to, you will not be certain about what you are
feeling.
• To give the human tester a reference for what they are touching,
commercial sets of standards are available.
• Comparison should be made against matched identical processes.
• One method of note is the finger nail assessment of roughness and
touch method used for draw dies in the auto industry.

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 Stylus Equipment
▣ This technique uses a stylus that tracks small changes in surface
height, and a skid that follows large changes in surface height. The use
of the two together reduces the effects of non flat surfaces on the
surface roughness measurement.
▣ The relative motion between the skid and the stylus is measured with
a magnetic circuit and induction coils.
▣ The actual apparatus uses the apparatus hooked to other
instrumentation.
▣ The induction coils drive amplifiers, and other signal conditioning
hardware, then amplified signal is used to drive a recorder that shows
stylus position, and a digital readout that displays the CLA/Ra value.
▣ The paper chart that is recorded is magnified in height by 100000:1,
and in length by 82:1 to make the scale suitable to the human eye.
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Working Principle of Stylus

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 Other Roughness Values
•Rp : is the height of the highest peak in the roughness profile over the evaluation length

•Rv is the depth of the deepest valley in the roughness profile over the evaluation length .

•Rt, is the sum of these two, or the vertical distance from the deepest valley to the highest peak.

•Rz is the sum of the height of the highest peak plus the lowest valley depth within a sampling length