Abstract
A method for surface analysis of cold rolled sheets is proposed in this paper. The approach is based on a low-cost specially built camera system followed by spectral analysis of the data captured from metal surfaces. The focus is on the changes in the surface topography caused by cold rolling with emphasis towards periodicities in the processed surface. Angular profile of the spectrum is calculated and used to display periodicities in surface topography and show their direction. The results obtained by using the proposed system were compared with results obtained from the optical profilometer MicroProf FRT. The experiments show that cold rolling creates marks on the surface of the material, which represent periodicities that can be effectively detected by the proposed method and camera system. Even though the camera system is not able to measure precise surface roughness, it is able to detect periodicities and the results of spectral analysis are comparable with the results from the optical profilometer.