If we are interested in knowing the effect of machining on workpiece surfaces, polishing would remove most of the burrs and other debris present. We were asked to polish the machined surface before taking SEM pics. Kindly clarify.
Thanks for your input.
But then does it not change any surface characteristics. I mean for those who are interested in surface characterization or interested in roughness then polishing may affect it.
Please clarify.
Shivraj
If you are interested in roughness you will not require SEM. Use a Talysurf or some similar stylus based instrument to measure it. Other characterization is not affected by the low surface forces due to polishing.
Thank you Sir..
But we are into micromachining wherein we have to use non-contact profilers for surface roughness measurement (including SEM )
Shivraj
That makes it different. What is your specimen size? Which micromachining process are you using?
Sir
We are using MicroEDM for drilling microholes of diameter upto 0.1mm. We are trying to find surface roughness on these holes after splitting.
Hi Shivraj
If I've understood your situation correctly, why not just polish the plane perpendicular to the cut?
I think Mehdi's point is that if your surface is too rough, you'll just obtain a blurry image if you observed the cut plane directly no matter how much you attempted to focus the image.
Shivraj
Since the micro hole is produced by micro EDM and you want to study the surface quality of the hole. If you split it what you are looking at is a semi-cylindrical surface. No polishing is required in my opinion. The problem is where you are going to focus the electron beam since you do not have any flat surface?
Sir
That is the procedure that has been told to us by IIT professor. They told that in order to find the roughness, split the hole into 2 halves and then use a CCI non-contact profiler which will give the roughness values on both halves.
Yes. That is a better solution. Here is an example of that product.
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