edwidder
Mechanical
- Jul 7, 2012
- 4
This question is not at all trivial, especially in the international environment. The two standards documents are ANSI Y14.36 and ISO 1302. In Y14.36, specification of a single value is implied as a maximum value. (NOT a target value!). However, in ISO 1302 (& ISO 4287), the simple specification applies the "16% Rule" as a default. Per this standard, if one wants the value to be an absolute maximum specification, then "MAX" must be added to the parameter designation ("Ra Max"). [Thankfully, Rmax is not recognized within ISO, but is within ASME B46.1.] This 16% Rule is a quirky blending of an acceptance criteria within the parameter definition document. There is an opinion that quality acceptance criteria are properly contained within the measurement plan for the part and not on the part drawing - or indirectly through the parameter definition. There is some uncertainty in surface roughness values - but there is uncertainty present in ALL measurement activities. Why single out surface roughness? One of the problems with the 16% Rule is that it would allow 16% of the measured values to be outside of the specified value, but doesn’t specify how far out any single measurement value can be. On some critical surfaces, outlier areas may be functionally inappropriate.