A comparative study on the three-dimensional surface topography for the polished surface of femoral head

Several surface topographic techniques have been widely used in many manufacturing engineering fields for studying the surface characteristics for the practical application of manufactured surfaces. In this paper a polished surface of a femoral head is considered for the comparative study, where the stylus-based technique, the autofocused optical measurement technique, rite interferometric technique, and scanning probe microscopy are applied After the operational principles are introduced, some practical comparative measurements are reported for the polished surface. Some useful comparisons and conclusions are drawn from the comparative study. General guidelines for the 3D surface topography are also given for practical application.