Michigan Metrology Announces Surface Roughness, Texture, and Tribology Course

Deep dive into surface roughness basics and attendees’ specific applications

(Michigan Metrology: Livonia, MI) -- Registration is now open for the annual “Surface Roughness, Texture, and Tribology” short course, presented in Livonia, Michigan, May 13–14, 2026. The two-day class offers a unique opportunity to learn the fundamentals of surface roughness and tribology and how they relate to friction, wear, noise, sealing, and appearance in manufacturing and product development.

“We’ve developed this class to help people use surface roughness analysis in their workplaces,” says Don Cohen, Ph.D., who presents the course. “The two-day format lets us dive deep into surface roughness basics and to also address our attendees’ specific applications.”

This class will feature two guest presenters: Laurie Winkless, physicist and science journalist; and Mark Malburg, president of Digital Metrology Solutions. Bruker will also provide live demonstrations of 3D optical profilers.

The two-day course topics include:
• Measuring surface texture
• Filtering texture data into roughness and waviness
• Analysis techniques and tools
• Surface texture parameters
• Specifying surface texture
• Applying texture analysis to wear, vibration, and other functions
• Coating adhesion and appearance
• Noise and vibration
• Dry friction and rolling friction
• Fundamentals of lubrication
• Surface metrology strategy

“We’ve been refining and expanding this class for 20 years,” says Cohen. “It’s the most thorough and affordable opportunity we know to learn the fundamentals of surface texture and tribology, and to apply them for use in the workplace.”

Class details and registration are available at michmet.com/classes. Registration requests can also be made by emailing info@michmet.com.

A video introduction to this class is available at https://youtu.be/kQM23BbTHfk.

About the instructor: Donald Cohen

Donald Cohen established Michigan Metrology in 1994 to help engineers and scientists solve problems related to “squeaks, leaks, friction, wear, appearance, adhesion, and other issues” using 3D surface texture measurement and analysis.

Prior to forming Michigan Metrology, Cohen was vice president of engineering at WYKO (now part of Bruker), developing surface metrology instrumentation. He served as vice chairman/chairman of the ANSI/ASME B46.1 Surface Texture Standards committee from 2000-2011 and is past chairman of the STLE-Detroit section. He holds a master’s degree in physics and a Ph.D. in optical sciences.