How to Correctly Use a Profilometer

Profilometers are a great tool for quickly measuring a part’s surface profile and finish, but you need to apply the correct pressure to get an accurate reading. Our Quality Engineer Ethan shows you how it’s done!

Video Transcript:

“Today, we’re gonna get rough.

On today’s Quick Tip, we’re going to make sure you have the proper pressure on your part with the Mituoyo [Surface] Test.

Now, some of you like me may have not been taught properly on how to use the Profilometer. So today, we’re going to go over making sure that you’re on that part just right.

What we’re going to do is bring our tip down to the part, and we’re going to watch our screen as we get close, and make sure that bar turns from red to blue. That’s when you know that you have the proper pressure. You don’t want to over-pressurize, or under contact that surface. You want to get the proper reading.

Now that we have the proper pressure on it, we can hit go, and the surf test is going to do its thing. Now that it’s done, it’s going to display its results. We tested it on a 4 Ra and we got a 4.05 Ra.

Now remember: you just want to lightly touch the tip. You don’t want to be too rough. For more tips, or a link to China Precision Parts’s Tinder profile, like and subscribe!”