Roughness Tester Care and the Six Faults You Will Actually Meet

Three daily habits

Clean: wipe the housing with a lint-free cloth after every use, and clean the stylus contact face with a cotton bud and a little anhydrous ethanol to remove oil and chips. Blow dust out of slides and guideways periodically.

Calibrate: follow the manufacturer interval with a reference specimen, and record the reading and deviation. When the deviation starts to grow systematically, the stylus is ageing – better to know that than to wait for obviously wrong numbers.

Store: avoid impact, heavy vibration, dust, humidity, oil and strong magnetic fields. Put the probe back in its case immediately, never loose in a tool bag. Charge before the battery is flat, and remove it for long storage.

Six common faults

1 Irregular fluctuation. Move away from motors and transformers and re-measure, then check the cable between probe and main unit for looseness or damage, and reseat it.

2 Will not power on. Confirm supply, check the fuse, and on some models rule out a software hang by restarting the control system.

3 Repeatability drops. Most often stylus wear – the tip dulls and consistency falls, so replace the stylus assembly. Otherwise check that the workpiece sits firmly and the bench is level.

4 Readings uniformly high or low. Usually failed calibration or a wrong parameter; recalibrate and verify the cut-off length.

5 No display or garbled screen. Rule out battery and supply first, then suspect the display module – these normally go back to the factory.

6 Still low battery after charging. The battery has reached end of life; replace the pack per the manual. If a new pack behaves the same, the charging circuit is at fault.

Summary

Care is not about handling things gently. It is about treating the stylus as a consumable and calibration as a daily record. Do those two and most faults show up before they bite.