The effect of tip size on the measured Ra of surface roughness specimens with rectangular profiles

When measuring rectangular and trapezoidal profile roughness specimens, the stylus tip increases the measured profile peak width and decreases the measured valley width. This can cause either an increase or a decrease in the apparent roughness average Ra, depending on the tip size and the ratio of peak width to valley width. Sometimes the change is larger than the combined measurement uncertainty from other sources. This raises the question as to whether measured surface parameters should be corrected for the effect of tip size.