Why use surface finish charts? Reason five

A tool for visually comparing surface finish

Someone searching the web for a chart showing standard surface finish may actually be looking for a picture of what a particular surface (for example, a surface with a roughness of 63 μin Ra) should look like.

This is where another handy reference tool comes in: the surface finish comparator, also known as the surface roughness comparator plate.

Surface finish comparators are inspection tools that provide an alternative to mechanically testing each component and obtaining a practical measurement of its Ra.

A contact surface roughness profilometer, which is read by a probe mounted along the surface of the part and may scratch or otherwise alter the surface of the part

A non-contact, non-destructive tool that uses interferometry or other optical 3D measurements to measure without touching the surface of the part

But instead of these mechanical tools, you can look at a comparator board that shows what 63 μin. (or 32 μin., 16 μin., 8 μin., etc.) Ra looks like compared to the part you are testing.

Using a surface finish comparator is a quick and easy way to determine whether a part meets specifications by looking at the part rather than physically measuring the surface profile.

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