Adhesion can be an asset for non-slip mats or athletic shoes, or it can be a serious detriment for sliding or rolling components, engine parts, gears, etc..
To quantify adhesion we need to understand how the contacting surfaces move against each, and the degree of friction is involved. When surfaces are in contact, not all points are in contact. One key to understanding adhesion is knowing the “real area of contact” between the two surfaces.
Two useful parameters in this effort are Sds (the Summit Density), which counts the number of summits per unit area of the surface, and Ssc (the Mean Summit Curvature) which is an indicator of the radius of the summits likely to contact a mating surface. For some polymer film applications these small asperities are critical to optimizing handling, coating and adhesion properties.
Michigan Metrology measures surface roughness to predict, control and optimize adhesion. We bring over 25 years of experience to this complex task
Issues we address: