The Surface Texture Answer Book

This book addresses how to specify, measure, interpret and document surface texture, and how to apply that information to maintain and improve product quality. If you work with surface texture you have probably faced questions such as, "What is filtering?" "What is waviness?" or "Is what I see in my measurement real, or not?" When you're in the thick of diagnosing a manufacturing problem, or when you're facing a product performance issue, you need practical information to solve it. In this book we've put together a series of short essays that address dozens of questions we have addressed in our years in industry. We look at how to specify, measure, interpret and document surface texture. And, we show you how to apply that information to maintain and improve product quality. This book is structured as a series of independent questions and answers, to help you quickly address your immediate measurement challenges. But we hope the hundreds of figures and images will also help you visualize all that is happening at the texture level. Surface texture is more than just numbers from measurement instruments-it's a microscopic world with huge implications for part performance, wear and safety. We hope this book simplifies some of the intricacies of texture analysis and provides you tools to explore and understand your component surfaces. Carl Musolff and Mark Malburg bring over 70+ years of combined experience in surface texture measurement and analysis to the writing of this book.