b'TO THE FINISH LINEToolmakers offer a variety of products to achieve surface finish specifications, including ones for polishing, buffing and grinding.By Alan RichterT he surface finish required on machined compo-nents varies widely based on the application, ranging from a visual determination to a mea-sured average roughness specification.There are certainly applications where it is really so far based on a visual inspection in a shop, said Anne Bonner, but more and more we see different indus-tries adopting measurement methods for surface finish and putting those into specifications.The senior product manager for Norton | Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Worcester, Massachusetts, said in-terest in imparting finer surface finishes is growing for both aesthetic and operational reasons. The latter, for example, relates to automotive parts that experience friction in operation, where a finer finish on parts pro-vides quieter operation and less heat generation.Measuring the roughness of a surface finish depends on the type, quality and repeatability of the instrument used, said Thomas Namola, product development and applications engineer for Abrasive Technology LLC in Lewis Center, Ohio. He added that manufacturers some-times are more concerned about the abrasive, or scratch, pattern, such as on the mating surfaces of cylinder heads where the finish can vary in appearance based on how the grind lines overlap and be cause for rejection.No difference could be measured, he said, but it was deemed not an acceptable finish.12JULY 2023Finishing.indd 12 6/15/23 1:49 PM'