ASSESSMENT OF SURFACE GEOMETRY USING CONFOCAL SCANNING OPTICAL MICROSCOPE

Surface geometry and in particular texture and form have played an imp ortant role in determining the performance of engineering parts. The p resent work reports on the development of an optical method based on C onfocal Scanning Optical Microscope (CSOM) for measurement and assessm ent of surface topography and form errors like circularity, cylindrici ty, sphericity and flatness. The surface topography parameter modifica tions are studied on workpieces subjected to finishing processes start ing from grinding process to various polishing stages. The form error is measured by mounting the specimen on an air bearing rotary stage fo r accurate measurement. Some new parameters for distinguishing shape f rom peak to valley error in case of cylindricity measurement are sugge sted. Some of the 2-D roughness parameters are extended to assess the 3-D surface roughness and form errors. A double orientation method is used for separating the workpiece error from the spindle error. Softwa re performs the data collection, processing, analysis and computation of 2-D and 3-D parameters. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.