Smoothness Testing Products

Smoothness testing and surface roughness testing will help you to work out whether a surface is suitable for a particular purpose.

These important tests show the surface roughness makeup of the materials you use to build your products, which has an important role in their durability and performance.

Surface roughness testing will indicate how your steel products will interact with their destined environment and can guide your choice of paints and coatings. It can demonstrate the smoothness of any  paper or board you are considering for packaging. Or if you’re a manufacturer of medical devices, surface roughness testing can guide the development of a hip prosthesis.

Why is surface roughness testing important?

Across many industries you’ll find products and materials that must be manufactured within stringent surface roughness limits to ensure the optimum quality. These include  ISO 8503-01 and ASTM D4417 Method A for steel products.

Surface roughness testing is an important inspection. It can help you obtain the visual appeal you’re seeking for your product by identifying surface defects, their severity and the impact on the material. All of which will support you to optimize your processes and improve the quality of your final product.

How is surface roughness measured?

Surface roughness is quantified by the deviations in the direction of the normal vector of a real surface from its ideal form. If the deviations are large, you have a rough surface; if they are small, the surface is smooth.

Over the years there have been many methods developed to measure surface roughness. These include: direct measurement, non-contact, and comparison methods. You can explore surface roughness with direct stylus based technology, or you can use light or sound instead for a non-contact approach.

The smooth news is that a roughness tester will quickly and accurately determine the surface texture or surface roughness of your products.

The Industrial Physics range of modern, innovative surface roughness testing machines combine robust mechanical design and user-friendly electronics. Click through some of the smooth inspection devices we offer below.

Industrial Physics surface roughness testing tech

You may have heard of ‘The Bekk Method?’ It’s a tried-and-tested surface roughness testing approach based around air flow. The Automatic Bekk Smoothness Tester from Messmer Büchel is a microprocessor-controlled instrument that’s perfect for testing very smooth surfaces like coated label papers. To find out more – click here. And if you’d like to look more into paper testing then check out our guide to paper porosity testing in the iP knowledge base here. 

The TQC Sheen surface profile roughness gauge is a simple surface roughness testing instrument for fast measuring of the point peak-to-valley height of a surface. It’s ideal for measuring the height of welds – find more info here.

If you work in the marine industry and want to understand the roughness of a vessel’s hull then we’ve got the shipshape testing solution you need. The Hull Roughness Gauge will enable you to spot and solve roughness issues relating to corrosion, pitting, plate undulation or biofouling.

Another handy product from TQC Sheen is the steel surface roughness comparator. It gives you a comparison standard according to ‘ISO 8503 part one standards for preparation of steel substrates. It indicates the surface condition of blasted steel according to ISO 8503 in grades of fine, medium, and coarse.

The surface roughness comparator can be used in accordance with other international standards and comes in a sturdy leather wallet – find out more information here.

So, as we hope we’ve shown, we’re pretty smooth when it comes to surface roughness testing. We’d be happy to talk you through any of our surface roughness solutions – just get in touch!

Contact us – Industrial Physics