Discover what surface profile is; why the industrial and protective coatings industry measures it; and how you can take faster, more accurate, and repeatable surface profile measurements using the Elcometer 224 Digital Surface Profile Gauge.

CONTENTS
0:04 - What is surface profile?
1:32 - Surface profile vs. roughness
2:01 - Why does the coatings industry measure surface profile?
2:58 - What surface profile is required?
4:31 - Surface Comparators
4:59 - Replica Tape
5:44 - The new Elcometer 224 Digital Surface Profile Gauge
7:06 - Why you need to take multiple readings
8:39 - The Elcometer 224 and ElcoMaster App

PLEASE NOTE - If you have an Elcometer 224 gauge that was released before 1st March 2019, you can update the software of your gauge to include the new measurement modes feature by connecting the gauge to the latest version of ElcoMaster for PC via USB cable.

In the industrial and protective coatings industry, steel surfaces are blasted not only to remove corrosion or old coatings, but to generate a surface profile prior to re-painting.

The surface profile increases the surface area, and it is this increased surface area which provides a key for the coating to adhere or stick to.

Surface Profile should not be confused with roughness. Surface profile is a measurement of the peak-to-valley height. Surface roughness, on the other hand, is the combined measurements of the surface profile and the frequency of the peaks across a linear length (also known as the peak count).

The coatings industry measures surface profile to avoid corrosion. Corrosion is typically caused when three things come together – a ferrous material (in our case the steel substrate), oxygen (from the air) and moisture. If you can remove just one of the 3 elements, corrosion (or more precisely aerobic corrosion) simply cannot happen.

Applying a coating to the steel provides a barrier between the steel and both the air and moisture, preventing corrosion. So if the coating is damaged, or simply rolls off the surface due to poor adhesion, then the steel will rust, corrode, and in time weaken the structure.

The surface profile required is specified by the coating manufacturer or the coating specification agreed to by all parties, and is directly related to the specified dry film coating thickness being applied.

Typically the surface profile specified is the peak-to-valley height in either microns or mils. The coating is also specified in either microns or mils, as a dry film thickness. The key here is that the required coating thickness is applied to both the valleys and the peaks, otherwise you get rust spots. If the profile is too high or too low, this can lead to premature coating failures, and ultimately corrosion.

There are a number of ways to measure surface profile:

- Surface Comparators:    • How to use a Surface Comparator  

- Replica Tape:    • Measuring Surface Profile using the E...  

- A needle depth gauge, such as the Elcometer 224.

With the ability to measure profiles up to 500 microns (20 mils), on flat or curved surfaces, the Elcometer 224 Digital Surface Profile Gauge provides repeatable and reproducible measurements, accurate to ±5%; can store each reading into memory (150,000 readings in 2,500 batches) – and can instantly transfer them to your PC or mobile device using ElcoMaster; our free, easy-to-use software application, generating professional inspection reports, instantly.

What’s more, the new Elcometer 224’s measurement modes, make sure that you can collect and record the data you need in accordance with your relevant test method, or standard.

Connect the Elcometer 224 to your mobile device via Bluetooth, and either transfer the readings from memory, or transfer each reading into the ElcoMaster App, live as you take them. Once the inspection is complete, you can instantly generate and send the inspection report, anywhere in the world.

For more information on the Elcometer 224 Digital Surface Profile Gauge, please contact Elcometer at [email protected], or visit our website: https://www.elcometer.com/en/coating-...

-----

Click here to download the video script in English: https://www.elcometer.com/pub/media/P...


-----

STANDARDS:

Elcometer 125

AS 3894.5, ASTM D 4417-A, IMO MSC.215(82), IMO MSC.244(83), ISO 8503-1, ISO 8503-2, SSPC PA 17

Elcometer 127

AS 3894.5, ASTM D 4417-A, SSPC PA 17

Elcometer 129

AS 3894.5

Elcometer 122

ASTM D 4417-C, BS 7079-C5, ISO 8503-5, NACE RP0287, SSPC PA 17, US Navy NSI 009-32, US Navy PPI 63101-000

Elcometer 124

ASTM D 4417-C, ISO 8503-5, NACE RP0287, SSPC PA 17, US Navy NSI 009-32, US Navy PPI 63101-000

Elcometer 224

ASTM D 4417-B, SANS 5772, SSPC PA 17, US Navy NSI 009-32, US Navy PPI 63101-000