Sensitivities of surface texture parameters to measurement errors – A review

The surface texture is functionally important. It can be characterised using a set of parameters. The errors in determining the parameters should be small. In this paper, areal surface texture parameters are presented. The errors in the determination of areal parameters are studied, with focusing on the field parameters. Inaccuracies typical for stylus and optical methods are considered. Errors caused by the digitisation process, errors created during data processing, and parameter variations on typical surfaces are studied. The relations between measurement errors and surface texture parameters are analysed and discussed. On the basis of this review, parameters of considerable changes due to measurement errors and stable parameters are selected. Spatial parameters are robust, while the skewness and kurtosis are susceptible to measurement errors. Feature parameters with high sensitivity to measurement errors should not be used during routine measurements.