ISO 25178
ISO 25178: Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS) – Surface texture: areal is an International Organization for Standardization collection of international standards relating to the analysis of 3D areal surface texture. Structure of the standard. Documents constituting the standard : Other documents might be proposed in the future but the structure is now almost defined. Part 600 will replace the common part found in all other parts. When revised, parts 60x will be reduced to only contain descriptions specific to the instrument technology. New features. It is the first international standard taking into account the specification and measurement of 3D surface texture . In particular, the standard defines 3D surface texture parameters and the associated specification operators. It also describes the applicable measurement technologies, calibration methods, together with the physical calibration standards and calibration software that are required. A major new feature incorporated into the standard is coverage of non-contact measurement methods, already commonly used by industry, but up until now lacking a standard to support quality audits within the framework of ISO 9000. For the first time, the standard brings 3D surface metrology methods into the official domain, following 2D profilometric methods that have been subject to standards for over 30  years. The same thing applies to measurement technologies that are not restricted to contact measurement (with a diamond point stylus), but can also be optical, such as chromatic confocal gauges and interferometric microscopes. New definitions. The ISO 25178 standard is considered by TC213 as first and foremost providing a redefinition of the foundations of surface texture, based upon the principle that nature is intrinsically 3D. It is anticipated that future work will extend these new concepts into the domain of 2D profilometric surface texture analysis, requiring a total revision of all current surface texture standards (ISO 4287, ISO 4288, ISO  1302, ISO 11562, ISO 12085, ISO 13565, etc.) A new vocabulary is imposed: The new available filters are described in the series of technical specifications included in ISO 16610. These filters include: the Gaussian filter, the spline filter, robust filters, morphological filters, wavelet filters, cascading filters, etc. Parameters. Generalities. 3D areal surface texture parameters are written with the capital letter S (or V) followed by a suffix of one or two small letters. They are calculated on the entire surface and no more by averaging estimations calculated on a number of base lengths, as is the case for 2D parameters . In contrast with 2D naming conventions, the name of a 3D parameter does not reflect the filtering context. For example, "Sa" always appears regardless of the surface, whereas in 2D there is "Pa", "Ra" or "Wa" depending on whether the profile is a primary, roughness or waviness profile. Height parameters. These parameters involve only the statistical distribution of height values along the z axis. Spatial parameters. These parameters involve the spatial periodicity of the data, specifically its direction. Hybrid parameters. These parameters relate to the spatial shape of the data. Functions and related parameters. These parameters are calculated from the  material ratio curve (Abbott-Firestone curve). Parameters related to segmentation. These "feature parameters" are derived from a segmentation of the surface into motifs (dales and hills). Segmentation is carried out using a watershed method. Software. A consortium of several companies started to work in 2008 on a free implementation of 3D surface texture parameters. The consortium, called OpenGPS Several commercial packages provide part or all of the parameters defined in ISO 25178, such as MountainsMap from Digital Surf, SPIP from Image Metrology, TrueMap 6 from TrueGage, as well as the open source Gwyddion. Instruments. Part 6 of the standard divides  the usable technologies for 3D surface texture measurement into three families: and defines each of these technologies. Next, the standard explores a number of these technologies in detail and dedicates two documents to each of them: Contact profilometer. Parts 601 and 701 describe the contact profilometer, using a diamond point to measure the surface with the assistance of a lateral scanning device. Chromatic confocal gauge. Part 602 describes this type of non-contact profilometer, incorporating a single point white light chromatic confocal sensor. The operating principle is based upon the chromatic dispersion of the white light source along the optical  axis, via a confocal device, and the detection of the wavelength that is focused on the surface by a spectrometer. Coherence scanning interferometry. Part 604 describes a class of optical surface measurement methods wherein the localization of interference fringes during a scan of optical path length provides a means to determine surface characteristics such as topography, transparent film structure, and optical properties. The technique encompasses instruments that use spectrally broadband, visible sources (white light) to achieve interference fringe localization). CSI uses either fringe localization alone or in combination with interference fringe phase. Focus variation. Part 606 describes this type of  non-contact areal based method. The operating principle is based on a microscope optics with limited depth of field and a CCD camera. By scanning in vertical direction several images with different focus are gathered. This data is then used to calculate a surface data set for roughness measurement.