Surface Finish - What is the meaning of the term “LAY”?

[JaySturgeon]

I have a question for the forum. I have never heard the term “LAY” used with regards to surface measurement before. Can anyone enlighten me to it’s meaning and use when applied to surface measurement.

I would greatly appreciate all your input.

Thanks........

JaySturgeon said:

I have a question for the forum. I have never heard the term “LAY” used with regards to surface measurement before. Can anyone enlighten me to it’s meaning and use when applied to surface measurement.

I would greatly appreciate all your input.

Thanks........

Jay,

Being curious because I heard the term uses also, I did a quick search on the Internet and found the following information. It appears that "lay" is the direction the grain is running. Hope it helps. You can do what I did. Do Google or Altavista and type Surface Finish Lay. Have a good one.



aSurfaceFinish
SetLayDirection

Sets the lay direction for the surface finish.

HRESULT SetLayDirection(long direction)


Arguments
direction - [in]
The lay direction for surface finish.

Description
Call this function to set the lay direction for the surface finish.

The following values are supported for direction:

LayDirection Value
aSurfaceFinish_none 0
aSurfaceFinish_parallel 1
aSurfaceFinish_perpendicular 2
aSurfaceFinish_crossed 0
aSurfaceFinish_multiDirectional 1
aSurfaceFinish_circular 2
aSurfaceFinish_radial 2



See Also
Use aSurfaceFinish::GetLayDirection to get the lay direction.



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[Mike S.]

Jay,

I've found SF can be a complex and confusing measurement. While it may not address "lay", nevertheless there was a good article on SF in the August 2001 "Quality Magazine". It might be available on their web site. Also, I've found the folks at Federal Products (now Mahr Federal) to be helpful and knowledgable on SF issues if you call or e-mail them. Just in case you need more info. in the future...

[Bill Ryan]

The Machinery's Handbook (sorry, I've only got the 23rd edition) has a chart for Surface Finish Lay on page 710. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Bill

[JaySturgeon]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I appreciate the quick responses.