Straightness, Flatness, Parallelism,

Squareness, Roundness, Cylindricity

ME3190 Machine Tools and
Metrology
 Straightness
• A line/surface is said to be straight if the deviation of the distance
of the points from two planes perpendicular to each other and
parallel to the general direction of the line remains within a specific
tolerance limit
• The tolerance for the straightness of a line is defined as maximum
deviation in relation to the reference line joining the two
extremities of the line to be checked
 Methods of Straightness Measurement:
Spirit Level
• Spirit level is used in the shape of a bubble tube which is mounted
on a cast-iron base
– Inside the glass tube, the spirit level has a circular arc which moves during a
change of slope around the centre
• Sensitivity of the spirit level depends only on the radius of
curvature of the bubble tube and not on the length of its bearing
surface

• The sensitvity E of the spirit level is the

movement of the bubble in millimetres,
which corresponds to the change in
slope of 1 mm per 1000 mm

𝑀𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑢𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒
𝐸=
1 𝑚𝑚/𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑒
 Methods of Straightness Measurement:
Straight Edges
• Used for checking straightness and flatness
• Narrow/thin, deep and flat-sectioned measuring instrument
• Deep and narrow shape provided to offer considerable resistance to
bending in the plane of measurement under excessive weight

Made up of steels or cast iron

They are heavily ribbed
Straight edges with wide working
edges are used for testing large areas
of surfaces with large intermediate
gaps or recesses
 Flatness
• Flatness error of a surface states that the departure from flatness is
the minimum separation of a pair of parallel planes which will just
contain all points on the surface

Flatness Error

Geometric Tolerance of
Flatness
 Methods of Flatness Measurement: Beam
Comparator
• It is used for checking the general degree of flatness
• It can be used for comparing the flatness of a surface under
consideration with a master plate
• For comparative testing, it is not essential that a reference master
plate itself should be absolutely true but the error should be known
 Methods of Flatness Measurement:
Interferometry
• Small variations of less than one
or two microns are measured
using interference fringes
– Fringes are produced
between the surface and an
optical flat illuminated by
monochromatic light
• The fringes may be regarded as
contours of equal distance from
the surface of the flat
– Separation between each
fringe of the same colour
represents a height
difference of half a
wavelength of the light used
 Methods of Flatness Measurement: Surface
Plate
• The flat surface of a surface plate is used as a reference datum
plane
• It acts as a master for checking the characteristics of a work, viz.,
flatness
• It is manufactured with different materials, viz,. Cast iron, granite,
or glass block
 Parallelism
• Two entities are said to be parallel to each other when the
perpendicular distance measured from each other anywhere on the
surfaces under test and at least in two directions does not exceed
an agreed value over a specified time
– Parallelism defines the angle between two surfaces of a sample
 Methods of Parallelism measurement:
Using Dial Indicator and Test Mandrel
1. Parallelism between two planes:
The distance between two planes
at any position should not deviate
beyond a minimum value

2. Parallelism of two axes (of two

cylinders): The maximum deviation
between the axes of a cylinder at
any point may be determined by
gently rocking the dial indicator in
a direction perpendicular to the
axis
 Methods of Parallelism measurement:
Using Dial Indicator and Test Mandrel
3. Parallelism of an axis to a plane
(Reference): An instrument is
moved along the plane for a
distance over which parallelism is
to be checked

4. Parallelism of an axis to the

intersection of two planes
 Methods of Parallelism measurement:
Using Dial Indicator and Test Mandrel
5. Parallelism of two straight lines, each formed by the intersection of
two planes:
 Methods of Parallelism measurement:
Using an Automcollimator
• Smaller values of parallelism can be
measured using an autocollimator

• The autocollimator consists of a

reflecting telescope with a
calibrated cross wire eyepiece

• If surfaces of the sample are not

parallel, the reflected cross wire
image from its upper surface will be
displaced when viewed in the
eyepiece
 Squareness
• Two planes, two straight lines or a straight line and a plane are said
to be perpendicular when the error of parallelism in relation to a
standard square does not exceed a given value
• The reference square may be a metrological square or a right angle
level or may consist of kinematic planes or lines
 Optical Square
• It determines the out-of-squareness of two nominally orthogonal
axes, by comparing their straightness slope values
Methods of Squareness Measurement: Indicator
Method
• This method is used to access the ability of the grinding process to
grind opposite faces of the block accurately parallel
• Testing procedure consists of checking the parallelism of the faces
AC and BD
– Then the squareness of these faces with the face CD is to be checked
 Methods of Squareness Measurement: NPL
Tester
• This instrument is used to test the engineer’s square
• It consists of a tilting frame mounted on a knife edge or roller
supported at the end of an arm by the micrometer head

• The frame carries a vertical straight edge

with two parallel sides
• The movement on the micrometer drum
will tilt the entire frame and, in turn, the
measuring surface of the straight edge
 Methods of Squareness Measurement: Square
Master
• Ideal instrument for
standard rooms and
machine shops involving
single axis measurement
• Measurement of
squareness, linear height,
centre distance, diameter,
step measurements are
possible with this
instrument
 Roundness
• Roundness is defined as a condition of a surface of revolution (like
cylinder, cone or sphere) where all points of the surface intersected
by any plane perpendicular to a common axis in case of cylinder
and cone (or passing through a common centre in case of sphere)
are equidistant from the axis

Out-of-roundness value is the

difference between the maximum
and minimum radial departure from
the reference circle centre

• Out-of-roundness of machined parts could be due to poor bearings

in the lathe or grinding wheel spindle, or to deflections of the
workpiece as the tool is brought to bear on it
 Roundness and Circularity
• Roundness expresses a particular geometric
form of a body of revolution in all three
dimensions

• Circular contour is the characteristic form of

the entire periphery of a plane figure
 Types of reference circles
1. Least square reference circle
(LSRC): Sum of areas inside the
circle are equal to the sum of the
areas outside the circle and kept to
a minimum separation

2. Minimum Zone Circle (MZC): It is

defined as two concentric circles
positioned to just enclose the
measured profile such that their
radial departure is a minimum
 Types of reference circles
3. Minimum Circumscribed Circle
(MCC): Also known as the ring-gauge
reference circle and is the smallest
circle that totally encloses the profile

4. Maximum Inscribed Circle (MIC): Also

referred to as plug-gauge circle is the
largest circle that is totally enclosed
by the profile
 Methods of Measuring Roundness:
Component Rotation
• The component is rotated on a
highly accurate spindle that
provides the reference for the
circular datum
• The output of the gauge consists
of three added components
– Instrument error
– Component set-up error
– Component form error
 Methods of Measuring Roundness:
Rotating Stylus
• The stylus is rotated while the component is kept stationary
• Usually performed on small high-precision components but is also
useful for measuring large, non-circular components
• More accurate due to continuous loading on the spindle
 Cylindricity
• Cylindricity forms a perfect cylindrical boundary around the object
that the entire 3-Dimensional part must lie in
 Types of Reference Cylinders
1. Least Squares: Constructed from the
average radial departure of all the
measured data from the least squares-
axis

2. Minimum Zone: Described as the total

separation of two concentric cylinders,
which totally enclose the data and are
kept to a minimum separation
 Types of Reference Cylinders

3. Minimum Circumscribed:
Minimum radius that totally
encloses the data

4. Maximum Inscribed: Maximum

radius that is enclosed by the data
 Cylinder Parallelism
• Cylinder Parallelism is a measurement of the taper of the
cylinder and is given as the parallelism of two least-square
lines constructed through the vertical sides of the profile
 Coaxiality
• Coaxiality is the relationship of one axis to another

• Two recognized methods of calculating coaxiality

– ISO Standard
– DIN Standard
• ISO has defined coaxiality as the diameter of the cylinder that
is coaxial with the datum axis and will just enclose the axis of
the cylinder referred for coaxiality evaluation
• DIN Standard has defined coaxiality as the diameter of a
cylinder of defined length, with its axis co-axial to the datum
axis that will totally enclose the centroids of the planes
forming the cylinder axis under evaluation