A correlational study of areal surface texture parameters on some typical machined surfaces

A number of areal surface texture parameters have been adopted by standards bodies, namely ISO 25178-2, in which forty-one parameters within six groups are defined. The selection of the suitable areal parameters becomes an issue for a designer. The study of correlation among parameters is one of the ways to find the most suitable parameters for a specification. This paper presents a Spearman’s correlation study of areal surface texture parameters on some typical machined surfaces. Sixty surfaces, produced by nineteen machining methods, have been assessed by the use of an optical instrument; the operators adhered to ISO 25178-3; and parameters defined by ISO 25178-2. The correlation results are classified by using five correlation levels. It details the correlations between different groups of parameters, together with the correlation of parameters within the same group. The results are presented in Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient matrix and charts. A three-layer parameters tree is then proposed to help engineer in the selection of parameters.