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Surface Texture Measurement – Ra, Rz, Rmax, Rz1max, Maximum Height

D. K. Cohen
Michigan Metrology, LLC, Livonia, Michigan, USA

A surface profile is composed of a spectrum of different spatial wavelength components of

various amplitudes. The measured profile will consist of a “filtered” version of the true profile since the
instrument will be physically limited in sensing the finest spaced features. The longer wavelength
structure detected will be limited by the physical extent of the region measured. Once measured, the
resulting raw profile is further filtered by electronics or software algorithms to precisely limit the spatial
wavelengths comprising the measured profile.

A typical long wave cutoff, λc for roughness is 0.8 mm which means a 0.8 mm spatial
wavelength component that is 1 um peak to valley will be measured as 0.5 um peak to valley after
being filtered. Spatial wavelength components longer than 0.8 mm are further attenuated prior to the
evaluation of Ra.

In addition to specifying the long wave cutoff, a short wave cutoff, λs is needed to be specified.
Typically the ratio of the long wave cutoff to the short wave cutoff is 100:1. Thus a 8 um short wave
cutoff may go along with a 0.8 mm long wave cutoff to establish a typical measurement bandwidth.

A short wave cutoff of 8 um means that a 8 um spatial wavelength component that is 0.1 um
peak to valley will be measured as 0.05 um peak to valley after being filtered. Spatial wavelength
components of less than 8 um are further attenuated prior to the evaluation of the various texture
parameters.

Typically (Figure 1) the stylus probe of a profilometer is scanned over the surface a distance
termed the Traversing Length. Prior to analysis, some portion of the leading and trailing ends of the
Traversing Length is eliminated to minimize the effects of stylus probe start/stop. With the leading and
trailing ends removed, the resulting profile is termed the Evaluation Length. The Evaluation length is
then further subdivided into Sampling Lengths which are typically equal in length to the long wave
cutoff (λc).

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Figure 1. Demonstration of a measured profile and the Traversing Length, Evaluation Length and
Sampling Length.

The roughness average, Ra is a measure of the average of the absolute value of the variation of
the surface texture profile about a best fit mean line (Figure 2). Ra is expressed in units of length since it
is a measure of the absolute value of the area under the profile (relative to a mean line) averaged over the
length of the profile. For the American Standard, Ra is evaluated over the complete Evaluation Length.
For the ISO standards, the Ra is found for each sampling length resulting in a series, Ra1, Ra2,
Ra3,…Ran. Thus for ISO standard the final Ra that is reported is the average value of Ra1, Ra2, Ra3,
Ra4…Ran. Note that typically five (5) sampling lengths are measured but in many cases more than five
(5) sampling may be used and in other cases there may be only room for one (1) sampling length for
evaluation.

L
1
Ra = ∫ Z ( x ) dx
L0
L
Figure 2. Demonstration of the measurement of Ra.

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The next popular parameter 1 which is more sensitive to extreme peak/valley structures than Ra
is Rz. However Rz has taken on many different definitions over the years and unfortunately has been
implemented differently among the various surface roughness measuring machines available 2.

The “Z” of Rz is derived from the German word for “ten” since the original concept centered
around finding the average of the height difference between the five highest peaks and five lowest
valleys and thus involved the measurement of “ten” points along the profile. The confusion that
surrounds Rz is whether the measurement is made over the Traversing length, the Evaluation Length or
the Sampling length.

Since 1995, the American Standard , ASME B46.1 has defined Rz as the average over the
evaluation length of the successive values of the peak to valley heights (Rt1, Rt2, Rt3…Rtn) found per
sampling length (Figure 3) . Thus one may use any number of sampling lengths to determine Rz.
Typically if the number of sampling lengths is not specified, it is assumed that 5 sampling lengths are
used.

Figure 3. ASME B46.1 calculation of Rz. Although the figure demonstrates only 5 sampling lengths, any
number of sampling lengths may be used

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The German standard, DIN 4768:1974 defined Rz as being found from the average of the peak
to valley height for five (5) successive sampling lengths.

The current ISO standard, ISO 4287:1997 defines Rz as simply the peak to valley height found in
one (1) sampling length (e.g. Rz1, Rz2.. being the Rz (peak to valley) in the 1st, 2nd etc. sampling length).
Thus the measure of Rz is then found as the average of all Rzi values found for each sampling length.
The ISO documents further indicate that if the number of sampling lengths are not specified then 5
sampling lengths are assumed.

In some applications, instead of taking the absolute highest peak and absolute lowest valley in a
sampling length to determine Rz(ISO), the next highest or third highest peak/lowest valley are selected.
Thus to be clear Rz1 , or Rz2 or Rz3 may be specified as related to the ranking of the peak/valley
structure that is used in analysis. Note that Rz1 is thus the same as the original Rz for a single sampling
length.

The parameter Rmax (American) is the maximum of all the Rti values that are found. Thus in
Figure 5, Rmax = Rt5. Rmax (ISO), is the maximum of all the Rzi value that are found and thus is
equivalent to the Rmax (American).

Note that to be specific, sometimes the parameter Rz1Max is specified to be certain that the
absolute highest peak and absolute lowest valley is found per sampling length in the determination of Rz
and then the subsequent determination of Rmax. Also in some cases the term Rz1Max, Rmax may be
called simply “Maximum Height”.

Summary:

• Ra (American) is found from an average over the Evaluation length whereas the Ra (ISO)
is found as the average of the Ra found for all sampling lengths. Typically the Ra
(American) and Ra(ISO) are identical.

• Rmax (American) = Rmax (ISO) = Rz1Max(ISO)=Maximum Height

1
L. De Chiffre, P. Lonardo, H. Trumpold, D. A. Lucca, G. Goch, C. A. Brown, J. Raja, H. N. Hansen, Quantitative
Characterisation of Surface Texture, Annals of CIRP, Vol. 49/2000p 635-
2
Alex Tabenkin, The ABCs of Rz, Quality, November 2007

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Tel: 734-953-5030 Fax: 734-953-5611 www.michmet.com Email:doncohen@michmet.com