Mitutoyo UK Ltd (www.mitutoyo.co.uk) has supplied a Surftest SJ-210 portable surface-roughness tester to the Brewdog brewing plant in Ellon (north of Aberdeen).

Brewdog engineer Niall Murphie says: “Although there are relatively few micro-organisms that can affect the quality of beer, they can have a massive effect on the end product, so all our stainless-steel vessels — along with fabricated pipework and other items of equipment — have their surface finish checked to ensure that it conforms to our stated hygiene standards.

"For a long time, we used surface-finish checking methods that were somewhat subjective and could lead to differences of opinion with our suppliers, so we recently purchased an accurate Surftest SJ-210 portable surface roughness tester from Mitutoyo. As it is calibrated and its results are traceable to national standards, our suppliers see its findings as unbiased and factual.

“In addition to setting the instrument to a nominal surface finish figure of — for instance — 0.8µm Ra, we apply upper and lower tolerance limits. This ensures that pass/fail results are displayed immediately after the completion of a measuring routine. We use the SJ-210 in some difficult-to-access areas, so it helps that its results are displayed on an easy-to-read back-lit LCD.”

The SJ-210 can make accurate surface roughness measurements on almost any part of a workpiece of practically any size, and it can operate independently of mains power.