A tale of two surfaces – challenges with the Rk Parameters
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
Analyzing additive surfaces with directional filters
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
What does it take to make a stone look and feel great?
What makes a stone feel good in your hand? What magnitude of surface roughness is required for it to feel that way? We recently collaborated with stone enthusiast and retired metrologist Bob Rother to find out. Rother wanted to combine his passion for “rock hounding” with his background in process engineering and precision measurement to
What’s In Your cylinder bore?
Engine cylinder bore surfaces are among the most “engineered” surfaces in the world. Millions and millions of hours (and dollars) have been spent on testing and optimizing these surfaces. And countless magazine and journal articles have been published on these surfaces.Despite these efforts, we find that there is no single, “one size fits all” solution
Surface roughness sheds light on how fish evolve
What can surface texture tell us about how biological communities evolve? Dr. Jessica Arbour and her team at Middle Tennessee State University studies differences in morphology (physical traits). Their goal is to better understand why some species “stay with one biological plan” while others explosively diversify into many new forms. Arbour has studied many different
Curved Profile tool in OmniSurf3D
Measuring texture along a linear path is a fairly straightforward process. A stylus-based measurement will do the trick. And, if we have areal (3D) measurement data, we can position a cursor on the path of interest and view it as a profile. But sometimes roughness matters along a curved path — perhaps along a ridge
Assessing a chipped or worn tool corner
As you may have seen in this video, analyzing a wear scar on your surface is fast and easy with OmniSurf3D… even when the scar occurs along a curved surface. However, what you may not know is that the OmniSurf3D wear analysis tool can also handle worn or chipped corners as well. For example, let’s
New! Microfinish comparator gage textures in the Surface Library
We made a big addition to the Surface Library this week! The new Microfinish Comparator series includes high resolution, 3D data of the 22 surface texture samples on a GAR S-22 microfinish comparator gage. These textures represent various machining operations and surface roughness amplitudes. Many of us use these kinds of tactile gages to compare
How to remove shape from a complex surface
To measure surface texture accurately we need to be able to separate it from the underlying shape. Most surface texture software can remove simple shapes such as tilt and cylinder. Complex surface shape, however, can prove difficult to handle in a lot of software. OmniSurf3D includes a number of flexible tools to handle complex shape.