Measuring surface roughness of skinny plastic part 1

[CBecks]

Hi all,

We have a plastic (UHMWPE or nylon) wheel. It's 30mm in diameter, and only 4mm wide.
Want to measure the surface roughness across the 4mm face.

Does anyone know is it possible to measure surface roughness on plastics like that?
And across such a short distance while on a radius?

Thanks
CBecks

 

[TVP]

This sounds like a good candidate for non-contact surface measurement using an optical or laser-based method. There are many different manufacturers of this equipment and service providers that use it. Here is one link for more information:

http://www.azom.com/materials-equipment.aspx?cat=206

 

[ProEpro]

Good recommendation and good link link TVP. That is how I would also do it especially with a softer material like plastic.
for some reason I didn't see Keyence advertising on that page.

http://www.keyence.com/products/microscope/index.jsp

 

[dgallup]

You can use a mechanical tester with a ball tip probe. Going across the 4 mm width will limit you to a 0.25 mm cutoff length so if you need a longer length you can trace around the wheel. The very low frequency of the curvature will be filtered out.

I've used a couple of optical and had a couple of laser systems demoed and I am highly suspect of them. Sounds good on paper but real life parts seem to throw a lot of curve balls.

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