What is roundness?

Why roundness important?

How roundness is measured?
Term in roundness measurement
Roundness
angular
• Roundness is the measure of the sharpness
of a particle's edges and corners.
• Roundness applies to individual circular cross
sections of a surface of revolution or of a
sphere.
Sub -rounded

Well-rounded

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spherical
How roundness is measured
Vee-block (3 point) method Rotational datum method
Cylindricity
• Cylindricity applies to all cross-sections of a cylindrical
surface simultaneously. The surface must lie between the
two cylindrical surfaces which bound the tolerance zone and
are determined by a best-fit nominal cylinder

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Coaxiality
• Coaxiality is the relationship of one axis to another.
• Coaxiality DIN is defined by a 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.
• Coaxiality ISO is defined as the diameter of a cylinder that is coaxial with
the datum axis and will just enclose the axis of the cylinder referred for
Coaxiality evaluation.

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Runout
• Runout refers to the result of placing a solid of revolution
on a spindle such as a lathe, and rotating the part about its
central axis while measuring with a dial indicator its surface
deviation from perfect roundness. With circular runout, the
dial indicator is not moved along the direction of the axis of
the part. Circular runout is therefore applied independently
at each station along the length of the part as the part is
rotated through 360 degrees.
Total Runout:
• Total Runout: involves moving the dial indicator along the length of the
part while the part is rotated, so that it controls the cumulative variations
of circularity, cylindricity, straightness, coaxiality, angularity, taper, and
profile.

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Eccentricity
• Eccentricity: is the term used to describe
the position of the center of a profile
relative to some datum point. It is a vector
quantity in that it has magnitude and
direction. The magnitude of the
eccentricity is expressed simply as the
distance between the datum point and
profile center. The direction is expressed as
simply as an angle from the datum point to
the profile center.

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Concentricity
• Concentricity is the condition in which the axes of all cross-
sectional elements of a surface of revolution are common to
the axis of a datum feature. Because the location of the
datum axis is difficult to find, it is easier to inspect for
cylindricity or runout.
• Concentricity: is twice the eccentricity and is the diameter of
a circle traced by the component center orbiting about the
datum axis.

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Roundness Measurements
• Measuring differences in diameter is not sufficient to measure roundness and to measure
any component for roundness requiring some form of datum.
• Roundness is usually assessed by rotational techniques by measuring radial deviations from a
rotating datum axis; this axis remains fixed and becomes the main reference for all
measurements.

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Ways of Measuring Roundness
• Component rotation : involves rotation of the part while keeping the measuring
transducer fixed.
• The axis of the component is aligned with the axis of the spindle, using a centering and leveling table.
• A transducer is then used to measure radial variations of the component with respect to the spindle axis.
• The output of the gauge or transducer consists of three added components:

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Ways of Measuring Roundness
• Rotating the stylus: involves keeping the component fixed while rotating the measuring transducer.
• Rotate the stylus while keeping the component stationary. This is usually performed on small high
precision components but is also useful for measuring large, non-circular, for example
measurement of a cylinder bore using this method would not require rotation of the complete
engine block.

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Reference Circle
• To measure out of roundness, it is
necessary to compare the part
profile to an ideal circle or datum.

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Circle References cont.
• Least Square Reference Circle (LSC):
is a circle where the sum of areas
inside this circle is equal to the sum
of the areas outside the circle and
kept to a minimum separation.
• The out of roundness value is the
difference between the maximum
and minimum radial departure from
the reference circle centre. This is a
very convenient reference circle to
derive, as it is mathematically precise.

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Circle References cont.
 Minimum Zone Circle (MZC)
The MZC is defined as two
concentric circles positioned to just
enclose the measured profile such
that their radial departure is a
minimum. The roundness value is
then given as their radial
separation. (RONt)

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Circle References cont.
• Minimum Circumscribed Circle (MCC):
This is also known as the ring gauge
reference circle and is the smallest circle
that totally encloses the profile. Out of
roundness is quantified as the largest
deviation from this circle (RONt).

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Circle References cont.
 Maximum Inscribed Circle (MIC) :The
maximum inscribed circle, sometimes
referred to as the plug gauge circle, is the
largest circle that is totally enclosed by the
profile. Errors are quantified as the
maximum radial deviation (RONt) away
from this reference circle.

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Roundness Error
 Least square circle (LSC): It is a circle which separates the roundness profile of an object
by separating the sum of total areas of the inside and outside it in equal amounts. The
roundness error then can be estimated as the difference between the maximum and
minimum distance from this reference circle
 Minimum Zone circle (MZC): Here two circles are used as reference for measuring the
roundness error. One circle is drawn outside the roundness profile just as to enclose the
whole of it and the other circle is drawn inside the roundness profile so that it just
inscribes the profile. The roundness error here is the difference between the radiuses of
the two circles.
 Minimum circumcised circle (MCC): It is defined as the smallest circle which encloses
whole of the roundness profile. Here the error is the largest deviation from this circle
 Maximum inscribed circle (MIC): It is defined as the largest circle that can be inscribed
inside the roundness profile. The roundness error here again is the maximum deviation of
the profile from this inscribed circle.

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Example

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Results
• Note that the Ecc "Eccentricity" value is
0.1 µm <0.5 µm that is the surface is
correctly centered.
• The roundness equals to 1.11 µm which
indicates that the edges and the corner of
the object is smooth.
• Tolerance was 10 µm
• Φ was 172° (angle from the datum point
to the profile center).
• The measurement range was 100 µm

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