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Surface Finish of Cold Rolled Aluminium Foil HR Le and MPF Sutcliffe Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, U.K. ABSTRACT This paper describes a detailed analysis of the surface finish of aluminium foil that has been cold rolled under industrial conditions in the mixed lubrication regime. Foil stock Strip was rolled with freshly ground rolls at constant speed for the first pass and at a wide range of speed for the second pass. Strip samples were collected after the second pass. For comparison, samples were also collected after rolling with worn rolls. Surface replicas of the rolls were taken with surface replicating tape. The surface roughness of the strip samples and roll surface replicas was measured with a three-dimensional non-contact interferometric profilometer. The spectrum of the surface roughness was analysed by the Fast Fourier Transform method to identify the way in which different wavelengths of roughness behave. Theory suggests that longer wavelengths of roughness should be crushed more easily. This was confirmed by results on the first pass. A new image analysis technique has been developed to identify and quantify the area of the hydrodynamic pockets. To differentiate between these pits and grind marks transferred from the rolls, the height information was first averaged in the rolling direction and this mean height, which represents the contribution from the grind marks, was subtracted off. Results showed a significant increase in hydrodynamic pitting on the surface with increasing rolling speed. Key words: roughnesses, surface finish, surface spectrum, hydrodynamic pitting, mixed regime, lubrication and metal rolling For presentation at the IOM Conference on Modelling of Metal Rolling Process, London, 13-15 December 1999 1. INTRODUCTION Modelling of metal rolling process is currently an active theme of research since better understanding can have a significant economic impact due to the high tonnage