Surface Texture Measurement with Profile Method Using Six-Axis Coordinate Measuring Machine

Currently the measurement of surface texture in mechanical engineering is traditionally carried out using profilometers. Modern profilometers do not allow measuring of surfaces with complex shapes. This is due to the different sensitivity of the sensor and the discreteness of the movements along the axes of the Cartesian coordinate system. Coordinate Measuring Machines are devoid of such a drawback. However, stylus of the coordinate measuring machine has a diameter many times larger than the diamond stylus of the profilometer. Therefore, there is a mechanical filtering effect, that affects the results of measuring the parameters of the surface texture. In this paper a mathematical model of the contact of the spherical stylus and a rough surface based on analytical geometry is proposed. Influence of the diameter of the spherical stylus on the maximum measurement errors of a amplitude parameters are investigated. Seven amplitude parameters Rp, Rv, Rz, Ra, Rq, Rsk, Rku of the surface texture are modeled. Coordinate measuring machine and profilometer with stylus diameter of 2 μm measurement results are compared. it was concluded that the stylus diameter of the coordinate measuring machine when measuring the surface texture should be no more than 20 μm.