Micropitting is a surface fatigue phenomenon, on the scale of the surface roughness, which can be a significant problem in heavily loaded mixed lubrication contacts in power transmission gearing. Modern surface profilometry equipment allows detailed areal measurements of micropitted surfaces to be obtained. However, the processing of these surfaces to determine the extent of micropitting is difficult and often involves manual or semi-manual evaluation. This paper presents a new algorithm to allow the automated detection of micropits in areal surface measurements of ground surfaces, and its effectiveness is demonstrated by examination of measurements taken from a test where the early stages of micropitting developed. Comparison with previous methods for evaluating the amount of micropitting based on linear surface profiles clearly illustrates the truly three-dimensional nature of incipient micropitting.

微点蚀是一种表面疲劳现象，在表面粗糙度的范围内，在动力传动齿轮箱中的重载混合润滑触点中，这可能是一个重大问题。现代化的表面轮廓测量设备可以对微凹坑表面进行详细的面积测量。然而，处理这些表面以确定微点蚀的程度是困难的，并且常常涉及手动或半手动评估。本文提出了一种新的算法，可以自动检测地表面积的微坑，并通过检查微坑早期发展的测试结果来证明其有效性。