Why surface finish is important for engineering instruments?

The term surface finish generally refers to the overall description of the surface including the texture, the flaws, the materials, and any coatings applied. The need of producing smother and harder functioning of machine parts, load carrying capacity, tool life, fatigue life, bearing corrosion, and wear qualities of any component of any component of machine have direct bearing with its surface texture. Therefore, these effects made the control of surface texture very important. The surface finish is important to the function of many kinds of industrial products ranging from optics to highways. What are the factors affecting surface finish in machining? The machining variables (cutting speed, feed, depth of cut). Tool geometry (nose radius, rake angle, side cutting edge angle, cutting edge) Workpiece end tool material combination and their mechanical properties. uality and type of machine tool used. !uxiliary cooling and lubricant used. "ibrations between the workpiece, machine tool and cutting tool. Terminologies: !s we know that any material being machined by chip removal process can#t be finished perfectly due to some departures from ideal conditions as envisaged by the designer, due to conditions being classified into four categories.

$ig. %urface form deviations First Order& This includes the irregularities arising out of inaccuracies in the machine tool itself e.g. lack of straightness of guide ways on which tool post is moving. This includes the surface irregularities arising due to deformation of work under the action of cutting forces and the weight of the material itself. Second Order& %ome irregularities are caused due to vibrations of any kind such as chatter marks and are included in second order. Third Order: 'ven if the machine were perfect and completely free of vibrations, some irregularities are caused by machining itself due to characteristics of the process. This also includes the feed marks of the cutting tool. Fourth Order& This includes the irregularities arising from the rupture of the material during the separation of the chip. $urther these irregularities of four orders can be grouped under two groups. First group: $irst group includes irregularities of considerable wave( length of a periodic character resulting from mechanical disturbances in the generating set(up. These errors are termed as macro( geometrical errors and include irregularities of first and second order and are mainly due to misalignment of centers, lack of straightness of guide( ways and non( linear feed motion. These errors are also referred to as Waviness or %econdary Texture. Second group: %econd group includes irregularities of small wavelength caused by the direct action of the cutting element on the material or by some other disturbance such as friction, wear, or corrosion. These errors and fourth order and constitutes the micro geometrical errors. 'rrors in this group are referred to as )oughness or *rimary Texture. Thus any finished surface could be considered to be combination of two forms of wavelength (larger wavelength for waviness and smaller wavelength for roughness) superimposed upon each other. +ne of the problems in measuring surface finish is to separate the waviness from the roughness. Roughness: )oughness consists of surface irregularities which result from the various machining process. These irregularities combine to form surface texture.

Spacing of the irregularities is the mean distance between the more prominent irregularities of the effective profile, within the sampling length. This information is useful for measuring the wearing in of contact. ,rregularity spacing and height parameters used in combination are valuable for sheet(steel applications and for friction and lubrication studies. Roughness height: ,t is the height of the irregularities with respect to a reference line. ,t is measured in millimeters or microns. ,t is also known as the height of unevenness. Roughness width: The roughness width is the distance parallel to the nominal surface between successive peaks or ridges which constitute the predominate pattern of the roughness. ,t is measured in millimeters.

Fig. Surface characteristics

Fig. Roughness, waviness and form Waviness: This refers to the irregularities which are outside the roughness width cut off values. Waviness is the widely spaced component of the surface texture. This may be the result of workpiece or tool deflection during machining, vibrations or tool runout. Waviness Width: Waviness height is the peak to valley distance of the surface profile, measured in millimeters. Surface Te ture& ,t is the repetitive or random deviations from the nominal surface which form the pattern of the surface. %urface texture includes roughness, waviness, lay and flaws. !rimary Te ture "Roughness#& ,t is caused due to the irregularities in the surface roughness which results from the inherent action of the production process. These are deemed to include transverse feed marks and the irregularities within them. Secondary Te ture "Waviness#& ,t results from the factors such as machine or work deflections, vibrations, chatter, heat treatment or warping strains. Waviness is the component of surface roughness upon which roughness is superimposed. Real Surface& )eal %urface is the surface limiting the body and separating it from the surrounding surface. -eometrical %urface is the surface prescribed by the design or by the process of manufacture, neglecting the errors of form and surface roughness. $ffective Surface& 'ffective %urface is the close representation of real surface obtained by instrumental means.

$ffective profile& The contour that results from the intersection of the effective surface by a plane conventionally defined with respect to the geometrical surface. Roughness Width %ut Off: )oughness width cut off is the greatest spacing of respective surface irregularities to be included in the measurement of the average roughness height. ,t should always be greater than the roughness width in order to obtain the total roughness height rating. &ay: .ay represents the direction of predominant surface pattern produced and it reflects the machining operation used to produce it. Flaws: $laws are irregularities which occur at one place or at relatively infrequent or widely varying intervals in a surface (like scratches, cracks, random blemishes, etc)

%entre line of profile is the line parallel to the general direction of the profile for which the areas embraced by the profile above and below the line are equal. When the waveform is repetitive, the mean line and the centre line are equivalent. ,t may be noted that true repetitiveness in any manufacturing process is impossible and as such some difference in mean line and centre line is bound to exist. /ut, however, in view of its insignificance in relation to other errors of measurement of surface geometry by index, the mean line and the centre line may be considered to be equivalent for practical purposes. 'ean line of the profile is the line having the form of the geometrical profile and dividing the effective profile so that within the sampling length the sum of the squares of distances between effective points and the mean line is a minimum.

Traversing length: Traversing length is the length of the profile necessary for the evaluation of the surface roughness parameters. The traversing length may include one or more sampling lengths. Sampling length: %ampling length is the length of profile necessary for the evaluation of the irregularities to be taken into account. This is also known as the cut(off length to the measuring instruments. ,t is measured in a direction parallel to the general direction of the profile. ,t is very difficult to specify any value for spacing i.e. the length over which the surface profile is to be considered which could depend upon the manufacturing process employed. %imilarly no theoretical value could be assigned to the maximum spacing for considering the waviness, as at the higher value the waviness tends to become 0.1 mm is commonly accepted as suitable for most waviness measurements.

Fig. Sample length and assessment length

Table 2. "arious %urface roughness parameters and their formulae )rithmetic average roughness "Ra#: The 3.! or centre line average value of surface roughness () a) (as per the /%(2245) is the arithmetical average of the departure of the whole of the profile both above and below its centerline throughout the prescribed meter cut(off in a plane substantially normal to the surface. The ordinates are summed up without considering their algebraic signs approximately, where n is the no. of divisions over the sampling length.

$ig. !verage surface roughness Ra

Ten point averaged height R* ,t is the difference between the average height of five highest peaks and five lowest peaks within the sampling length measured with respect to datum parallel to mean line.

$ig. Ten point averaged height of irregularities Root 'ean S+uare "R+ or RR'S# ,ts numerical value is about 226 higher than that of Ra. )verage pea, ( to ( valley height "R*#& This is the average of single peak7to7valley heights from five ad8oining sampling lengths. 'a imum height of irregularity "Rma # is defined as the distance between two lines parallel to the mean lien and touching the profile at highest points within the sampling length. R- measurement& ,t is the maximum peak to valley height within the assessment length. This measurement is valuable for analy9ing finish to provide guidance for planning subsequent metal(cutting operations. !verage wavelength : )a; <ean slope. .earing area or .earing area fraction& This is the fraction of surface at a given height above or below the mean line. Ten point heights of irregularities "r/# is defined as the average difference between the five highest peaks and the five deepest valleys within the sampling length measured from a line, parallel to the mean lien and not crossing the profile. 0epth of surface smoothness "Rp#& =epth of surface smoothness ()p) value indicates amount of material to be removed from a work piece to obtain >06 bearing area.