UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS OF ROUGHNESS STANDARD CALIBRATION USING STYLUS INSTRUMENTS

A stylus instrument was characterized and calibrated, including a dyna mic calibration of the probe. This stylus instrument was used to calib rate ten roughness standards for six surface roughness parameters. The sensitivity of each parameter of each standard to such measurement co nditions as stylus geometry, measurement force, cut-off wavelength, an d so forth was determined experimentally. These results were used for an uncertainty evaluation of each parameter for each roughness standar d. It is shown that the manufacturers' specification for the stylus in strument (2% uncertainty in roughness parameters) is approximately cor rect for the most commonly used samples and parameters, but the uncert ainty may range from 0.03% (for sinusoidal profiles) to 100% (for very fine surfaces), depending upon the standard and parameter to be calib rated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.