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Measuring surface roughness on plastic vs metal

September 10, 2012

Q. Greetings all,

My question is very simple I hope. Can you use the same probe/stylus of a profilometer to measure surface roughness on plastic and metal? The plastic is delrin and the metal is 316ss.

Steve Martin
- Stafford, Texas, USA

September 12, 2012

A. Yes you can. The reading might be a little less due to the difference in hardness and therefore a tendency of the plastic to get scratched. Remember the old acetate phonographic records? The stylus of the phonograph was diamond or other very hard material and they lasted many runs

Bill Marrufo

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico

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