10/13/21, 10:51 AM Complete Surface Finish Chart, Symbols & Roughness Conversion Tables

Complete Guide to Surface

Finish Symbols, Charts,
RA, RZ, Measurements,
and Callouts
Definition of Surface Finish
Before we get on with Surface Finish Symbols, let’s understand how Surface Finish
is defined. Engineering prints call out a great many things in their attempt to make
sure the part that gets made matches the designer’s intent. Aside from dimensions
and tolerances, another important callout is Surface Finish.

Surface Finish is a measure of the overall texture of a surface that is characterized

by the lay, surface roughness, and waviness of the surface. Surface Finish when it
is intended to include all three characteristics is often called Surface Texture to
avoid confusion, since machinists often refer to Surface Roughness as Surface
Finish. Another term, analagous to Surface Texture, is Surface Topology.

This diagram gives an idea of how to think of the relationship of Waviness, Lay, and
Roughness:

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The relationship of Waviness, Lay, and Roughness…

Lay

The Lay is the direction of the predominant surface pattern, and is usually
determined by the production method used to process the surface. Here are some
typical Lay patterns:

Surface Finish Lay Patterns…

Surface Roughness
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Surface roughness is a measure of finely spaced surface irregularities. Surface

roughness is usually what machinists refer to when talking about “surface finish.”
When talking about all three characteristics, they may use the term “Surface
Texture” more properly.

Waviness

Surface Roughness speaks to fine detail imperfections, but there may also be
much coarser irregularities. For example, a surface may be warped or deflected
from the ideal.

Surface Finish and Product Function

How do product designers decide what surface finishes to require, and how should
CNC machinists think about surface finishes?

There are a variety of considerations, and they may even vary for different stages in
the manufacture of a particular part. For example, we may have a surface finish
requirement on a casting that ensures the finish (think of it as the deviations of the
surface of the casting from an ideal) is good enough that the allowance made for
extra material that will be machined off in a future step is sufficent. If the casting is
too imperfect, the trough of an imperfection may be below the expected machined
surface of that future step.

Another important consideration is friction. Reducing surface roughness typically

reduces friction which can be critical to reducing wear and increasing efficiency of
sliding parts.

The required surface finishes are very much determined by the function and use of
the component. Ship’s propellors start out with fairly high surface finish standards
but in actual use they erode pretty quickly. Optical and especially components used
with X-Rays have some of the finest surface finish requirements achievable.

The goal of the designer is to specify surface finishes that are as coarse as
possible but will still function within the part’s desired operating parameters. The
goal of the machinist is to achieve surface finishes on parts that are as good as
those required by the designer, but not better as that results in the cheapest to
manufacture parts. It’s important for designer and manufacturer to agree on exactly

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which parameters (Ra, Rz, etc..) are to be used for inspecting and parts
acceptance. While there are commonly accepted conversions between these,
actually using the same parameters for the inspection that the designer used with
the design always yields the best results.

Surface Finishes for Various

Manufacturing Processes
Surface Finishes vary tremendously by the manufacturing process used to achieve
them. A flame cut plate edge has a radically different surface finish than a ground
surface, for example. Choosing a process that’s capable of achieving the desired
surface finish is the first step in figuring out how to manufacture a part that requires
a particular finish. Sometimes, more than one process must be overlaid to achieve
the desired result cost-effectively.

Here’s a chart table showing the relative surface finish roughness of various
manufacturing processes:

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Relative Surface Finish Roughness of Manufacturing Processes…

For more on manufacturing processes and the cost of maintaining tight tolerances
and surface finishes, see our article:

[ The high cost of tight tolerances ]

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Measuring and Inspecting Surface

Finish
Measurement implies characterizing something as a number–something that’s very
important to CNC’ers.

There are a number of different characteristics we might measure with respect to

Surface Finish. Two of the most important are the height of the roughness peaks
and their separation, often referred to as “Ra” and “D”:

Ra and D are two important surface finish parameters…

The Surface Finish Units we would use for parameters like Ra would be either
micro-inches (English or Imperial) or micrometers (Metric). Our chart of surface
finishes by manufacturing process (see above) gives both.

When we try to measure a surface finish, the methods fall into three categories:

– Profiling Techniques: Here a high resolution probe is used to measure the

surface. Think of a sensitivity more in line with a phonograph needle than a typical
CNC Probe.

– Area Techniques: With an area technique, a finite area is measured and this
provides a statistical average of the peaks and valleys. Examples of area
techniques include optical scattering, ultrasonic scattering, and capacitance probes.
Area techniques are easier to automate and faster to execute, but profiling
techniques are often more accurate.

– Microscopy Techniques: These techniques are usually more qualitative

because they rely on measurement of contrast to provide information about peaks
and valleys.

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Instrumenets used to measure Surface Roughness using these various techniques

are called Profilometers.

Pocket Profilometer…

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Surface Finish Units From RA To RZ

Ra – Average Roughness

Ra is also known as Arithmetic Average (AA) or Center Line Average (CLA). It is

the average roughness in the area between the roughness profile and its mean
line. Graphically, Ra is the area between the roughness profile and its centerline
divided by the evaluation length. The evaluation length is normally five sample
lengths where each sample length is equal to one cutoff length.

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Ra is by far the most commonly used Surface Finish parameter. One reason it is so
common is that it is fairly easy to take the absolute value of a signal and integrate
the signal using analog electronics, so Ra could be measured by instruments that
contain no digital circuits.

Ra, while common, is not sufficient to completely characterize the roughness of a

surface. Depending on the application, surfaces with the same Ra can perform
quite differently. Here are 4 surfaces with the same Ra and quite different shapes:

All four surfaces have the same Ra but quite different shapes…

To distinguish these differences, more parameters are needed.

Rmax – Vertical distance from highest peak to lowest valley

Rmax is particularly sensitive to anomalies such as scratches and burrs that may
not be obvious from measures such as Ra that rely on averages.

Rz – Preferred by many Europeans

Rz is often preferred to Ra in Europe and particularly Germany. Instead of

measuring from centerline like Ra, Rz measures the average of the 5 largest peak
to valley differences within five sampling lengths. While Ra is relatively insensitive
to a few extremes, Rz is quite sensitive since it is the extremes it is designed to
measure.

Surface Roughness Grades: “N” Numbers

Here is a chart table showing how Roughness Grade Numbers convert to Ra

numbers:

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Roughness Grade Numbers and Ra Measures…

Surface Roughness of Abrasive Grits and Sandpaper

One approach to Surface Finish is to use abrasives or sand the surface. This chart
converts from abrasive grit to Surface Finish Ra values:

Surface Finish Math and Equations

To
Equation Notes
Calculate

Ra Ra = CLA = (M1 + M2 + M3 + M4) / Average

4 Roughness
in micro-
Where:
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meters or
M1, M2, … Mn are measure values
micro-
inches. Ra
is the
arithmetic
mean
deviation of
the profile

Mean
height of
Rc
profile
irregularities

Kurtosis of
Rku
the profile

Maximum
Rmax roughness
depth

Material
Rmr Ration of
the profile

Max profile
Rp Rp = MAX( M1, M2, M3, … )
peak height

Root mean
square
Rq Rq = RMS
deviation of
the profile

Skewness
Rsk of the
profile

Max height
Rt of the
profile

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Rv Rv = MIN( M1, M2, M3, … ) Max Profile

Valley
Depth

Max height
Ry of the
profile

Rz = Ra x 7.2 Avg Max

Rz This is a very ROUGH estimate and height of

not an exact conversion! the profile

Roughness
Rz ISO
Height

Average
RPM max profile
peak height

RMS = SQRT( (M1^2 + M2^2 + Root Mean

RMS
M3^2 + M4^2) / 4 ) Square

Center Line
CLA CLA = Ra
Average

Length
Cut-Off
required for
Length
sample

New ISO
(Grade)
N N = Ra (um) x 40
Scale
Numbers

Surface Finish Symbols, Callouts, and

Standards
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In the United States, surface finish is usually specified using the ASME Y14.36M
standard. The rest of the world commonly uses International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) 1302.

Callouts and symbols used for different surface finishes can be slightly different, so
we’ll look at a couple.

ISO Surface Finish Symbols and Callouts

ANSI Surface Finish and Callouts

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Surface Finish Symbols and Callout Example

GD&T Surface Finish

GD&T specifies parameters like Flatness, but these are not really surface finish. To
specify surface finish use either the ISO or ANSI symbols.

Surface Finish Cheat Sheet

A super handy Surface Finish “Cheat Sheet”:

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Factors Affecting Surface Finish

There are many factors that affect surface finish, with the biggest being the
manufacturing process (see table above). For machining processes, such as
milling, turning, and grinding, factors such as cutting tool selection, machine tool
condition, toolpath parameters, feeds, speeds, tool deflection, cut width (stepover),
cut depth, coolant, and vibration are just a few of the many.

Tips and Examples:

– When Face Milling, use a cutting tool with a lead angle other than 90 degrees. A
45 degree lead angle facemill will produce a finer finish.

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– Use inserts with a larger radius. A toroidal cutter or copy mill can often leave a
better finish than other insert geometries.

– Unless the insert height on your face mill can be individually adjusted, a fly cutter
often leaves the best surface finish.

Feeds and Speeds and Surface Finish

In general, adjust feeds and speeds for a lower chip load at the same rpms for a
better finish. Take a finish pass that’s relatively light as well. Make sure as you’re
doing this to avoid rubbing, which is very hard on tool life.

Our G-Wizard Calculator software has a handy “Tortoise-Hare” slider that makes it
easy to dial in proper feeds and speeds for a finishing pass:

G-Wizard’s Tortoise-Hare slider for dialing in your finish…

G-Wizard will also warn you if rubbing is a risk, which will help you avoid that
problem.

Ballnose Scallops and 3D Profiling

Surface Finish
If you’re 3D Profiling, each pass of the ballnosed cutter leaves a “scallop” in the
surface of the material. Our G-Wizard Calculator software has a special Mini-Calc

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that will help you adjust for a scallop height that delivers the required surface finish:

Ballnose Surface Finish Calculator…

Enter the maximum scallop height and G-Wizard will tell you the resulting RA and
RMS surface finish as well as calculate the stepover. BTW, if you want to know how
to pick optimal stepovers and tool diameters for 3D Profiling, we’ve got an article on
that too!

Surface Finish While Turning

Turning is very similar to 3D profiling in that the stepover, in this case determined
by the feedrate while turning, results in scallops that match the shape of the turning
insert. We use this to good effect when turning threads, but if we want a smooth
shaft, we’ll have a surface finish requirement that must be met. That will determine
feedrate and insert nose radius we can use for the job. G-Wizard has a nice
calculator for that too:

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Surface Finish Turning Calculator…

Surface Roughness Conversion Chart

Tables – Metric and Imperial
Cut-off Length

Ra Ra
RMS Rt N in mm
(µm) (µinches)

0.025 1 1.1 0.3 1 0.003 0.08

0.05 2 2.2 0.5 2 0.01 0.25

0.1 4 4.4 0.8 3 0.01 0.25

0.2 8 8.8 1.2 4 0.01 0.25

0.4 16 17.6 2 5 0.01 0.25

0.8 32 32.5 4 6 0.03 0.8

1.6 63 64.3 8 7 0.03 0.8

3.2 125 137.5 13 8 0.1 2.5

6.3 250 275 25 9 0.1 2.5

12.5 500 550 50 10 0.1 2.5

25 1000 1100 100 11 0.3 8

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50 2000 2200 200 12 0.3 8

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