Author(s)

D.J. Whitehouse

Abstract

The paper describes how by using the surface finish as a fingerprint the manufacturing process can be controlled. This usefulness can also be extended to monitoring the machine tool. To achieve these aims random process analysis has to be used. It is shown also that certain non uniform effects such as chatter can be predicted providing that space-frequency functions such as the Wigner distribution are used. Finally, a surface measurement technique having in process capability is described. 1 Introduction Surface geometry is taken to be the departure of real surfaces from their intended shapes. These deviations are caused by the machine process and are called roughness. Other longer wavelength and shape deviations are caused by errors in the machine tool or sometimes environmental problems. These lat

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