Assessing the Effect of Stylus Tip Radius and Flight on Surface Topography Measurements

Abstract

The mean square height, slope, and curvature are characteristics of roughness microgeometry that govern the performance of real surfaces in elastic contact. The values of these quantities deduced from stylus profile traces are distorted by the nonlinear filtering effect of the finite stylus tip and by the failure, at high enough tracing speeds of the stylus to maintain contact with the profile being traced. This paper describes the development of a simulation model for assessing the magnitude of this distortion as well as the effect of record length and sampling frequency with tracing profiles that are realizations of a random process having a specified spectrum. Illustrative parametric runs of the model are discussed.