Effects of Surface Roughness on Multi-Station Mechanical Alignment Processes

A theoretical simulation study was performed to study how surface roughness of the workpiece and datum can affect the locating precision of multiple station manufacturing processes using a mechanical alignment system. Our analysis shows that geometric consideration, a factor that has not been treated before, is extremely important for many multi-station applications. As expected, the level of alignment precision decreases when the level of surface roughness of the workpieces increases. Our analysis also shows that the effect of the sample roughness on the level of alignment precision depends heavily on the difference in the relative positions of the datum between different workstations.