Remembering Jim Wyant
December 11, 2023This week we are saying goodbye to James C. Wyant. Jim was a giant in optics and optical metrology for over 40 years, and his guidance shaped many of our
What surface finish does a medical device need?
November 14, 2023For a medical device to function over a long lifespan, we need to accurately specify, measure, and control its surface finishes. Yet, most surface finish specifications rely on parameters that
Register for Free Tribology & Surface Roughness Mini-Symposium
November 13, 2023On November 28, Surface Ventures will be hosting their first Mini-Symposium, gathering renowned experts in the fields of tribology, surface engineering and metrology for a series of presentations on tribological
My surface got shinier…but the average roughness stayed the same!
October 31, 2023Download this article as a PDF I have a surface with a certain average roughness value. When I polish the surface, it gets shinier…but the measured number hasn’t changed! What’s
How Do We Define Average Roughness?
October 17, 2023Average Roughness—in surface texture measurement, it’s one of the most frequently specified surface roughness parameters. In this video we look at how average roughness (Ra, or Sa) is calculated. We
Honing Plates (Sharpening Stones)
September 26, 2023Hone plates, or sharpening stones, are used to produce a fine edge on knives, scissors, and other tools. A kit of stones provides progressively finer grit sizes and spacings to
How Do We Define “Roughness?”
September 13, 2023“Roughness” can mean a lot of things, but in surface texture analysis, it has a very specific meaning. In this short video we look at how 2D and 3D surface
Friction and the Real Area of Contact
July 25, 2023If I need to push a long, heavy block, it seems like it should be easier if I stand the block up rather than laying it flat on its face…and
Dashboard surface texture
July 7, 2023When you’re thinking about the most engineered surfaces in a car, you may think of cylinder bores, clutches, brakes, etc. But we’d like to put one more item on your
Cavitation erosion
June 22, 2023Cavitation is the formation of air bubbles in a fluid as it goes from high pressure to low pressure. The dissolved gas can grow into bubbles—and under certain conditions those
Why do some bearings look shiny with wear?
April 25, 2023We tend to think of “new” surfaces as shiny and smooth, and “worn” surfaces as rough, dull, or uneven. But for a bearing surface, the opposite is often true: the
Visualizing “filtering” — an animation
April 18, 2023Surface texture can be described as a spectrum of spatial wavelengths. “Filtering” is the process to isolate the wavelengths that matter for our application. But what does that really look