SAND2016-4434PE

To replace these boxes with images open the slide master

Measuring and Characterizing Surface Topography

Hy D. Tran, PhD, PE
Senior Scientist, Sandia National Laboratories
Certain commercial equipment may be identified in this
AVS short course, May 26, 2016
presentation to illustrate procedures. This does not imply
recommendation or endorsement, nor does it imply that the
equipment is the best available for the purpose.

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed
Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
 Why surface topography?
Surfaces cover everything—and they influence behavior and performance of parts. In this
tutorial, we will focus on the topography of surfaces—the texture and roughness. Texture
includes both short spatial wavelength components (what one would call roughness) and
longer wavelength components (what one would call waviness and form). Texture may have
directionality (lay). These qualities are specified in mechanical product drawings, and the
evaluation of roughness is defined in both ASME and ISO standards. This tutorial provides an
introduction to surface metrology and to the evaluation of roughness. As an outcome, you
will understand the fundamentals of surface metrology, including vocabulary, definitions,
drawing symbols, evaluation methods, and both contact and non-contact equipment used in
measuring surface topography.

This tutorial combines materials developed and presented by various members of the ASME B46 committee on surface
texture in various venues. Major acknowledgments to Ted Vorburger, guest scientist at NIST, formerly chair of B46 and
currently chair of optical methods working group for ISO 25718; Chris Brown, professor of mechanical engineering at
WPI, currently chair of B46; Don Cohen, Michigan Metrology; John Kozar, Ford Motor, and a cast of dozens. Apologies to
others whose names were left off the print copy.

Some figures in the tutorial text are reprinted from other sources, and may not be duplicated unless permission is
obtained from the original publisher.
Desired outcomes for attendees
 Describe surface topography, surface metrology, and surface finish
 Describe effects of topography on performance
 Understand symbols used in mechanical drawings on surface finish
 Find major national and international standards used in specifying surface
finish
 Describe different parameters used in evaluation of surface texture
 Understand different methods used in measuring surface topography, and
the resulting evaluation of surface texture
 Obtain resources for deeper understanding of surface texture and
measuring surface texture
Outline:
 Surfaces/surface topography—general ideas
 Some discussion about manufacturing methods (mainly
machining) and effects on surfaces
 Types of methods for measuring topography (contact, non-
contact)
 Surface metrology parameters
 Documentary standards (ASME, ISO)
 Why do we care about surface
topography?
 Surface texture and topography affect:
 Wear and friction (sliding surfaces)
 Electrical and thermal conductivity (contacts)
 Corrosion properties
 Fatigue (stress concentrators on surface)
 Cost (excess cost to make a surface better than it
needs to be, or costs due to poor product quality
because surface properties were inadequately
manufactured or specified)
 Measurement (especially form: More difficult to
meet a tight form requirement if you have too much
topography)
 O-ring seals (be careful if you specify too good a
surface finish! Some seal designs actually require
that your roughness is in a range between a
minimum and maximum value!)
 etc.
 Surface texture terminology

Adapted from ASME B46.1:2009 6

Beware scale mismatch in visualizing topography

Direction of lay

This line, scaled down to 4 mm length,

would have Ra ≈ 3 µm (120 µin)
 Surface topography:
Roughness?
 Topography (will be in next edition of ISO 25718 Part 600)
 “points in space” defining the boundary between a material (typically a solid
material, such as a metal part) and a different material (typically, air) (my definition,
not ISO’s!)
 Roughness is one element of topography
 ASME B46 committee: Texture, roughness, waviness, and lay
 Topography (and roughness) have influence on performance:

 Light scattering vs reflection  Stress concentrators (fatigue)

 Resistance to fluid flow  Adhesion (paint, coatings, etc.)
 Nucleation for boiling  Thermal conductivity at interface
 Friction, wear  Electrical conductivity at interface
 Retention of lubricant  Biocompatibility (e.g.
osseointegration)
 etc
In different domains, different terms

Mechanical Optics Semiconductor

Engineering Technology
Roughness Finish Microroughness

Waviness Mid-wavelength Orange Peel

Slope Error

Error of Form Figure Flatness

Flaws, Imperfections, Defects, Scratches, Pits

Imperfections Digs & Scratches Other terms
Roughness & mechanical
 Part of the geometrical specification
 Manufacturing never hits the “nominal design specification”
 Always have a manufacturing tolerance
 Tolerance: Allowable deviation from the nominal value, where your
product is still considered “in specification” (my words, not ASME
Y14.5)
 Ideally: Not only “in specification”, but performance also is as
expected. Example: Filling an automobile with gasoline; there is an
allowable tolerance on the volume delivered (legal specifications in
the US through NIST handbooks and propagated to the States)
 Too much gasoline: Lose $
 Too little gasoline: Get sued, and lose $
 Texture affects nominal geometry
 Some designers use texture as a proxy for workmanship
How is roughness generated?
 Various machining operations, in the process of removing
material, leave a textured surface

Sawing
Turning Milling

Grinding

Feed
Tool Cylindrical
Surface Grinding
Grinding

Machine Tools/America’s Muscle, National Machine Tool Builder’s Association, McLean, VA

 Turned surface 6061-T6 Al

Chaotic processes dominate - limits finish

•built-up edge deposit
•tool nicks
•microconstituents-tool interaction
•micro burrs
f=10µm

f=250µm
Roughness average (Ra) is a parameter
 Ra (Roughness Average) is the average deviation of a profile from the
mean line.
Z
L
1
Ra = ∫ Z ( x) dx X
L0 L

i =n

∑Z i

Ra = i =1
L
Machining process typical capability:
 Micrographs of Surfaces

The following five plates are taken from J.M. Bennett and L. Mattsson,
Introduction to Surface Roughness and Scattering (Optical Society of
America, Washington, DC, 1989).

Plate 1. Nomarski micrograph of the surface of a hard contact lens

showing isolated large scratches on a background of small scratches.
Plate 2. Nomarski micrograph of a partially polished glass surface showing
the polished region and pits remaining from the grinding process.
J.M. Bennett and L. Mattsson, Introduction to Surface Roughness and Scattering
(Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1989).
Plate 3. Nomarski micrograph of a well-polished silicon-wafer
surface. No microstructures can be seen.
J.M. Bennett and L. Mattsson, Introduction to Surface Roughness and Scattering
(Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1989).

18
Plate 5. Nomarski micrograph of a well-polished molybdenum surface
showing the texture produced by the grains in the material.
J.M. Bennett and L. Mattsson, Introduction to Surface Roughness and Scattering
(Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1989).
 Nomarski Micrograph of a
Diamond-turned Aluminum Alloy

J.M. Bennett and L. Mattsson, Introduction to Surface Roughness and Scattering

(Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1989).
Why Ra Is Not Enough
Similar Ra – Different Surfaces

L. Monk, J. Kozar, M. Habel, Specifying Surface Finish,

Ford Motor Company Surface Finish Training Week Oct. 2014
 Parameters
Reducing millions and millions of points to a single number

z
y

From ASME B46.1:2009

• Surface topography is measured, then, a profile is extracted

• Roughness profile is extracted from total profile
• Parameter is calculated
Parameters for the parameters

 Ra (and other parameters) are defined over a length “L”

 Other parameters for calculation are generally prescribed
(for example, how to filter to separate profile from
waviness, etc.)
Key Limitations for Profiling Instruments (and for Measurements With Profiling
Instruments)

Spatial (Lateral) Resolution

Shortest spatial wavelength (finest spacings) that can be assessed with the
instrument.

Lateral Range (example: Traversing Length)

Determines the longest spatial wavelengths that can be assessed with the
instrument.

Bandwidth Limits
Spatial resolution and longest measurable spatial wavelength,

i.e., from to

Vertical Resolution
The smallest height variations that can be assessed
with the instrument.

Vertical Range

It is important to know the factors in each instrument (or measurement)20

that cause these limitations.
 A classification of surface texture measurement methods with examples

Areal Topography,*
Line Profiling, Senses Z(X,Y) or Area-Integrating
Senses Z(X) Z(X) as a function of Y

Contact Stylus Scanning,

Phase Shifting Interferometry, Total Integrated Scatter,
Contact Stylus Scanning,
Circular Interferometric Profiling**, Angle Resolved Scatter,
Phase Shifting Interferometry,
Parallel Plate
Optical Differential Profiling Coherence Scanning Interferometry,
Capacitance, Pneumatic
Confocal Microscopy,
Confocal Chromatic Microscopy,
Structured Light Projection,
*The accuracy of Z(Y) Refs:
Focus Variation Microscopy,
profiling depends on the
method and should be
Point Autofocus Profiling, T.V. Vorburger et al., Int. J.
Photometric Stereo, Adv. Manuf. Technol. 33, 110
ascertained for each method.
Digital Holography Microscopy,
Optical Differential Profiling, (2007);
**This technique relies on
circular scanning to produce a Angle Resolved SEM,
SEM Stereoscopy,
ISO Standard 25178-6
Z(θ) profile. Scanning Tunneling (2010), Classification of
Microscopy, Methods for Measuring
Atomic Force Microscopy, Surface Texture.
Micro-Roughness
 The radius of the stylus tip for stylus instruments acts as a
low-pass filter
 Optical instruments do not filter out micro-roughness
automatically since they are non-contact, but Sparrow limit
acts as a micro-roughness filter

Stylus Surface
Lateral Period Limit
Seen on an optical instrument Incremental Pitch Area

 The spatial or lateral resolution of a

surface topography measuring
instrument and its ability to distinguish
and measure closely spaced surface
features

10X

20X
Contact instruments

 The earliest surface topography tools

 Stylus contacts surface, and traces a profile (or multiple
profiles); typically spans the least expensive to very expensive
 Performance usually commensurate with price
 More expensive usually have greater options w/ data & signal
processing, greater sensitivity, span-of-motion, simultaneous
measurement of form and finish
 Before we go into instruments—more depth on how
topography is processed
 Remember: Parameters reduce millions of
points to 1 parameter

 Original instruments were stylus profilers that would collect a series of points from a line
trace
 Electronic high-pass filter to retain only the high frequency (short wavelength) content:
Roughness profile
 Average the output to get “average” roughness
Form & waviness
 Geometric specifications for parts ensure, among other
things, assemblability: Suppose design to assemble purple
part into light blue part (e.g. piston/cylinder in engine)
• Manufacturing imperfections, etc.—cannot (and should
not) design plug same size as hole!
• “Form” specifications establish “acceptable boundaries”
• Traditional machining: Machine geometry & imperfections
dominate allowable form & “waviness”; tool/cutter/material
interactions dominate “roughness”
 Filtering
 Selection of filters to separate roughness
from form & waviness is critical
Measured surface  Communication of filter settings is critical
 For the most part, “recommended” filter
settings in standards
=

+ +

form + waviness + roughness

Filtering: waviness, roughness

Trace – with
leveled with the
mean set to zero

Waviness –
“Roughness
removed”

Roughness –
“Waviness
removed”
Some height parameters
 Ra = arithmetic average height (most used)
 Rt maximum peak-to-valley
 Rp peak height
 Rv valley depth Rt = Rp + Rv
Traditional Topographic Characterization
S: surface z=z(x,y) R: profile z=z(x)
z
z n
0
x

arithmetic average: root mean square:

1 n
Sa or Ra = 1 Σ z Sq or Rq = 1
Σ1 z2
n n n

= =
 Mechanical instruments
• Traverse length > evaluation length in order to account for “landing” and “take-
off” transients
• Multiple sampling lengths in an evaluation length to help with filtering “before”
digital computers
• Standards give guidance on what the sampling length should be, based on past
research—sampling length is based on cutoff length, which is based on
expected (& measured) roughness
-Any (continuous) line can be expressed as a sum of
sines & cosines (or other orthogonal functions)
-A filter blocks certain frequencies; passes other
frequencies

Let animation play to show square wave decomposition

Gaussian filter characteristics
Stylus/surface interaction acts as a
(nonlinear) low-pass filter
 Smaller stylus radius can “read” higher spatial frequency
(shorter spatial wavelength)
 The condition of the stylus can affect your reading. An
increase in the stylus radius, due to damage, will prevent the
tip from entering the valleys giving substantially lower
roughness values.
Typical stylus instrument schematic

x
Measure z as f(x)
Stylus can affect surface – SEM micrograph of a stylus trace
on a turned aircraft aluminum alloy
Non-contact methods
 Typically captures z-points over a “large” x-y area
 Note that it is also possible to capture area measurements with stylus
contact methods by stitching y motion & x/z scans
 Note that some non-contact methods capture “point-at-a-time”
 Typically optical
 White light interferometers (scanning white light interferometers etc.)
 Confocal scanning
 Focus variation methods
 Structured light methods
Coherence Scanning Operating Principles
 Measures vertical (z) features
 x,y (lateral) are like conventional microscope
(image/pixel)
 Resolves vertical to 0.1 nm (or better)
 Software (both embedded and workflow) for measuring
and analyzing surface geometry map
 Slope limitation due to objective numerical aperture
 Computer control for “stitching” (measurements larger
than field-of-view)

Profile extracted by software

Confocal

Figure from Olympus

Focus variation
Structured light methods
 Such as Moire Fringe Projection methods
 Different tools have different “sweet
spots”
Use Stedman diagram to identify appropriate tools for your surface topography needs:
Stedman, M. “Basis for comparing the performance of surface-measuring machines”, Prec. Eng.
V9(3), p. 149-152, July 1987
Parameters
 Reminder: When looking at surface texture/surface
topography, a “parameter” is a single number that represents
the surface
 The parameter (hopefully) has correlation with performance
characteristics
 Parameters are put on drawings, and are typically a
manufacturing contractual requirement—for example
contractual requirements on size, distance, etc.—also
requirements on texture, such as Roughness average Ra

 PPrimary profile (line); RRoughness (of a line);

WWaviness (of a line); SAreal (equivalent to R, but of a
surface); Pt=“Profile max peak minus min valley (total)”;
Rt=Roughness max peak minus min valley, etc.
Typical parameters
 Height (amplitude) parameters
 Spacing parameters
 Shape parameters, hybrid parameters
 Statistical parameters
 Parameters are described in both ASME and ISO documents
 We will revisit in greater detail later

 If you specify a parameter, you should make sure that the

parameter you specify has an impact on the desired
performance!
Surface topography standards (as of 2012)
Standard number Short title (GPSGeometrical Product Specifications)
ASME Y14.36M:1996 Surface texture symbols
ASME Y14.5:2009 Dimensioning and Tolerancing
ASME B46.1:2009 Surface Texture (Surface Roughness, Waviness, and Lay)
ISO 1302:2002 GPS-Surface texture-Indication of texture in product documentation
ISO 4287:1997 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-terms, definitions…
ISO 4288:1996 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-Rules and procedures
ISO 5436-1:2000 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-measurement stds
ISO 5436-2:2000 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-software
ISO 8785:1998 GPS-Surface imperfections-terms, definitions …
ISO 12085:1996 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-Motif parameters
ISO 12179:2000 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-Calibration of stylus instruments
ISO 13565-1:1996 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-stratified functional-filtering
ISO 13565-2:1996 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-stratified functional-height ratio
ISO 13565-3:1996 GPS-Surface texture-Profile method-stratified functional-material prob
ISO 16610-1:2006 GPS-Filtration-overview
ISO 16610-20:2006 GPS-Filtration-linear filters-basic concepts
ISO 16610-21:2011 GPS-Filtration-linear filters-Gaussian filters
ISO 16610-22:2006 GPS-Filtration-linear filters-Spline filters
ISO 16610-28:2010 GPS-Filtration-linear filters-end effects
ISO 16610-30:2009 GPS-Filtration-Robust profile-basic concepts
ISO 16610-31:2010 GPS-Filtration-Robust profile-Gaussian regression
ISO 16610-32:2009 GPS-Filtration-Robust profile-Spline
ISO 16610-40:2006 GPS-Filtration-Morphological-basic concepts
ISO 16610-41:2006 GPS-Filtration-Morphological-Disk and horizontal line segment filters
ISO 16610-49:2006 GPS-Filtration-Morphological-Scale space techniques
ISO 25178-2:2012 GPS-Surface texture-Areal-Terms, definitions
ISO 25178-6:2010 GPS-Surface texture-Areal-Classification of methods
ISO 25178-601:2010 GPS-Surface texture-Areal-characterisitics of stylus instruments
ISO 25178-602:2010 GPS-Surface texture-Areal-characteristics of confocal chromatic probe
ISO 25178-701:2010 GPS-Surface texture-Areal-Calibration and standards for stylus instr.
Symbols on drawings
 Symbols generally ASME Y14.36M:1996; ISO 1302:2002
 Generally graphical shorthand—eg rather than “surface bounded by two parallel
planes separated by 0.10 mm,” 0.10
 If you design—fully specify the parameter, e.g.
 Parameter (Ra? Rq?) & acceptable limits?
 Mean line? (Least square mean line)
 Eval length?
 Short wavelength & long wavelength filters (both length and filter type; usually
Gaussian filter)
Instruments, parameters
 Typical workflow:
 Instrument collects points
 Points are filtered because of basic physics (optical limits, contact
limits, etc.) (user has little control)
 Points are filtered because of instrument limits (frequency response
of stylus?) (user has little control)
 Instrument software or firmware processes data:
 Sampling length, evaluation length, cutoff filters (user has controls, but
the controls are sometimes hidden)
 Calculation of parameter (user clicks the checkbox on the screen or
pushes a button)
 Report is produced (least expensive instruments: A single number on
the display. Most expensive instruments: Color screen shots etc.)
Height parameters
 Ra (also Sa, etc.) average of deviations from mean line
 Rq rms of deviations from mean line
 Rtmax peak minus min valley over a sampling length
 Rzaverage of n Rt’s (typically 5 Rt’s, where each sampling
length = 1 cutoff length)
Spacing parameter
 RsmMean spacing of profile irregularities: Average of the
Sm’s below
Shape parameters (statistical)
 Rsk (skewness, >0more hills; <0more valleys)
 Rku (kurtosis, pointiness of profile; =3roughly gaussian;
>3pointy; <3not as pointy)
Software validation
 If you have a moderately complex instrument, there is
software
 Does it perform calculations correctly?
• 5 different profiles
• 3 NMI softwares
• 3 commercial softwares
• Ra calculation
Displaying relative difference of results, normalized to
mean

From NPL Report

 Good practices
 Precision reference specimens:
 Amplification (step height); “Type A” specimen
 Stylus condition; “Type B” specimen—best test is razor blade test (if
you can do it)
 Parameter specimen, good for checking; “Type C”
 Performance specimen w/ irregular profile; “Type D”

Type A single groove

Type B or C
Good resources
 ASME B46.1:2009
 NPL Good Practice Guides (free w/ e-mail registration)
 Taylor-Hobson booklets (free w/ e-mail registration)