Choice of reference surfaces for machined surface roughness in milling of SiCp/Al composites

In order to choose the appropriate reference surface on the machined surface roughness of SiCp/Al composites, the cutting experiments of SiCp/Al composites were carried out, and the machined surface topography was measured by OLS3000 Confocal laser scanning microscope. The 3D measured data of machined surface topography were analyzed by the area power spectrum density. The result shows that the texture of machined surface topography in milling of SiCp/Al composites is almost isotropic. This is the reason that the values of Rq at different locations on the same machined surface are obviously different. Through the comparison of performance of different filtering methods, the robust least squares reference surface can be used to extract the surface roughness of SiCp/Al composites effectively.