A novel approach for study of straightness in commercially produced round metal bars based on deflection measurements

Round metal bars are available at various sizes at commercial markets and in industries. These bars are used in various branches of industry, for instance in automobile, aerospace, power and manufacturing engineering as well as paper industry, printing and packaging industry and construction industry. It is often found that round bars as available in open market are not often straight at various sections along the length. As the round bars usually fulfil responsible functions, their surface irregularities should be precisely measured. In the present investigation, straightness of bars is measured section-wise across the length of the bar in order to understand the actual scenario of production quality. An attempt has been made by choosing various different types of materials of different sizes to ascertain the actual availability of bar sizes at commercial market and also to understand the level of straightness of these bars along the axis of the bar. 3D surface plot is also used here to find out whether such bars as commercially available can be utilised for precision industrial applications or not. Finite element analysis is also performed to compare the deformations of different solid round metal bars. Results show that commercially available aluminium bars are showing nearly straight having less deformations compared to bars of other materials.