Contact-type Surface Roughness/Profile Measuring Instruments

Contact-type Surface Roughness

With contact-type surface roughness instruments, a stylus tip makes direct contact with the surface of a sample. The detector tip is equipped with a stylus tip, which traces the surface of the sample and electrically detects the vertial motion of the stylus.

The electrical signals go through an amplification and digital conversion process to be recorded.

To precisely measure delicate shapes and roughness with a contact-type surface roughness tester, the radius of the stylus tip must be as small as possible with low contact pressure.

Styluses are made of sapphire or diamond, and their tip radius is usually about 10 μm 0.39 mil or smaller. A conical shape with a ballpoint tip is considered ideal for a stylus.

Tip radius: r tip = 2 μm 0.08 mil, 5 μm 0.20 mil, 10 μm 0.39 mil
* Cone taper angle: 60º, 90º

* Unless otherwise specified, cones measuring instruments have a 60º taper.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Contact-type surface roughness testers provide reliable measurements because they directly touch the sample. However, direct contact to a sample often has many disadvantages as outlined below.

Stylus wear

On contact-type surface roughness testers, the stylus must be polished because the tip will wear down over time. The mode of wear varies, so the stylus tip may become flat or rounded depending on the material and shape of the measurement target object. Different stylus shapes will naturally generate different wave profiles.

One method for determining stylus wear is to use a commercially available wear-inspection test piece. Wear is determined by comparing the data profile (groove width) of the test piece before and after the wear of the stylus.

Stylus marking on a sample

Since styluses are made of sapphire or diamond, such hard materials can scratch the surface of the sample surface. Especially when repeating parallel adjustments, it is easy for the stylus to scratch the sample during rapid feed.

Grooves narrower than the radius of the stylus tip cannot be measured

Because the tip of the stylus is spherical, the stylus cannot trace the shape properly if the width of the groove (scratch, etc.) is narrower than the radius of the stylus tip.