Experiment N 5

Surface Roughness

Objectives:

To familiarize the students with different surface roughness parameters.

Apparatus:

Surface measuring instrument SE3500

Theory:

Surface topography is of great importance in specifying the function of a surface.

A significant proportion of component failure starts at the surface due to either an
isolated manufacturing discontinuity or gradual deterioration of the surface quality.
Typical of the former is the laps and folds which cause fatigue failures and of the
latter is the grinding damage due to the use of a worn wheel resulting in stress
corrosion and fatigue failure. Surface texture refers to “These regular or irregular
surface deviations which tend to form a pattern on the surface”. Surface texture
includes roughness and waviness. Many surfaces have lay: directional striations
across the surface.

The most important parameter describing surface integrity is surface roughness. In the
manufacturing industry, surface must be within certain limits of roughness; Therefore,
measuring surface roughness is vital to quality control of machining work piece.
Below are the definitions of the surface roughness.
Figure 5.1 Surface texture

Important definitions

Roughness: the finely spaced surface irregularities (short wave length) arising from
the production processes.

Waviness: the surface irregularities of greater spacing than in roughness (longer wave
length) upon which roughness is superimposed. It may be the result of vibration, hard
spots, imperfect turning of a grinding wheel,ect.

Center line or mean line: the center line is a line that is parallel to the general
direction of the profile. Roughness is measured around the center line. The sum of the
area above the center line must equal the sum of the area below the line.

Sampling length: Basis of parameter calculation (Generally, sampling length =

Cutoff). The sampling length for roughness measurement is in the range from (0.08-
25) mm.

Assessment length or evaluation length: length of profile necessary for the evaluation
of the surface deviation (roughness) parameters. The evaluation length may include
one or more usually from 3 to 10 sampling length with 5 as standard.

Parameters used in surface roughness measurement

.

Roughness Average (arithmetic mean line), Ra: This is defined as the average height
from a mean line of all ordinates of the surface regardless of the sign, over a sample
length.
 
n
y  y2  y3  ...  yn yi
Ra  1 = i 1
n n

The maximum peak to valley height of roughness; Rt: It is defined as the maximum
peak to the minimum valley distance measured in a sampling length. It is the most
common measure of roughness but it is not a complete definition of the roughness.

The average of the Rt (Rmax) values found in five consecutive samples; Rtm:
It is used to give a better representation of the peak to valley height. Thus, the average
of five Rt values in five consecutive samples is calculated;
Rt1  Rt 2  Rt 3  Rt 4  Rt 5
Rtm 
5
Average Maximum Height of the Profile Rz: It is the average of five highest peaks
minus the average of the five deepest valleys in an evaluation length.

( y1  y 2  y 3  y 4  y 5 )  (v1  v 2  v3  v 4  v5 )
Rz 
5

Requirements: Find out the Ra, Rt, Rtm, and Rz for the values provided to you.