ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT BY CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY FOR BRIGHTNESS CHARACTERIZATION AND SURFACE WAVINESS VISIBILITY EVALUATION

Brightness and waviness appearance are important criteria of surfaces for the success of commercial products, The first part of this paper p resents a brightness measurement procedure based on roughness measurem ents by confocal microscopy and scattering theory. The resolution of t he proposed method allows the separation of as many brightness levels as the eye can detect. This method links the brightness level of surfa ces to their microroughness and so provides industry with essential in formation for the management of the fabrication process in order to ob tain the desired final aspect. Tn a second part, the scattering diagra ms of surfaces are computed from microroughness parameters. Computed w aviness images are compared with real waviness images. Their likeness shows the ability of the proposed procedure to predict the waviness vi sibility and thus to better control the appearance of manufactured pro ducts.