Engineers often wish there was a particular expert in the room to help them navigate the journey from problem to solution. For some very fortunate engineers, Carl Musolff has been that expert. Carl Musolff has made a career of solving challenging problems, for engines of every shape and kind. But what he really loves is … Read more
Most measurement systems ship with software for acquiring data and displaying it in generalized ways. But what if you need to calculate special parameters, or display data in a way that’s unique to your process or application? Custom software tools, or “helper applications,” can pick up where off-the-shelf instrument software leaves off, filling in features … Read more
Here are two of our favorite pens: the “Uniball Grip” that we use with our logo, and the Pilot G-7 that we use for the Notepad Series. Both are relatively inexpensive, but they both write very well, and both grips feel great to hold. Speaking of “feeling great,” we put the pen grips under the … Read more
A joint post with Michigan Metrology.
Here’s a challenging measurement. We want to look at the surface texture of this O-ring: With a small radius and cross-section, steep sides, and soft material, it’s almost impossible to measure with a stylus. An optical system can do the job, though. Here’s a measurement made with a Zygo ZeGage at 10X magnification, shown in … Read more
Can I trust my measurement? Asking that question every time we measure drives us to be careful—and that keeps us producing meaningful results. Let’s look at a “simple” shop floor measurement of surface finish, made with a skidded instrument. And, let’s explore something that you might not imagine: “upward” dirt on the surface can cause … Read more
The “material ratio curve” tells us how much material we encounter (as a percentage) as we slice through a surface at various depths. You may also see it called the Abbott-Firestone Curve (based on the two engineers who developed it) or the Bearing Ratio Curve. The curve appears is a standard component of our OmniSurf, … Read more
It seems like the sport of Pickleball is everywhere these days! It’s definitely a game of skill…but having the right equipment doesn’t hurt, either. We were curious how big a difference there might be between Pickleball paddles, so we put a couple under the microscope (this is the kind of thing we do for fun). … Read more
The Rk parameters (Rk, Rpk, Rvk, Rmr1, Rmr2) are commonly used to specify and control plateau honing. However, there is a particular aspect of these parameters that can fool you… and it’s all about Rvk. Let’s take a step back and look at the plateau honing process. We start by honing a relatively rough, semi-finished … Read more
Controlling surface texture requires graphical data—and teamwork You’ve seen that controlling surface texture offers huge benefits for performance and wear. You’ve made the investment in measurement equipment. So, is there any benefit in spending more money on additional analysis software? We asked one of the most successful people in motorsports to find out. Here’s a … Read more
Many of us have seen these pictures of surfaces that the average roughness parameter, Ra, cannot distinguish between: However, you may not have seen different surfaces with the same values for the entire Rk family of parameters. For these Rk parameters: … we could have these two different surfaces: While the differences between these … Read more
When analyzing surface texture, we often need to separate specific features from the overall texture in order to analyze them. Isolating features from a complex background, however, isn’t always easy. Analyzing a surface created by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) In laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), an additive manufacturing technique, components are built up layer-by-layer … Read more