(Nanowerk News) Carl Zeiss and Digital Surf announce the signing of an agreement enabling Carl Zeiss to provide the ConfoMap® surface imaging and analysis software for confocal microscopes such as Axio CSM 700 true color confocal microscope, LSM 700 confocal laser scanning microscope, and other compound microscopes for topographical research.

ConfoMap® - Surface Texture analysis in accordance with the latest standards and methods.

"Carl Zeiss confocal microscopes provide strong support for the development of new materials and enable more efficient quality inspection in industry," stated Dr. Franz Reischer, Product Manager of the Materials Business Unit at Carl Zeiss MicroImaging. "Research institutes and industrial facilities using Axio CSM 700, LSM 700 and other Carl Zeiss microscopes to develop and manufacture modern materials will benefit greatly from ConfoMap® which will provide them with latest surface metrology standards and methods with an intuitive user interface."

The standard ConfoMap® ST package includes numerous analytical studies. Geometric studies calculate distances, angles, areas, volumes and step heights on 2D profiles and 3D surfaces. Functional studies, including the bearing ratio curve and height distribution, facilitate the assessment of friction and wear on engineering surfaces. The roughness and waviness components of a surface are separated using the latest ISO 16610 advanced filtering techniques and 3D surface texture parameters are calculated in accordance with ISO 25178 standard. Additionally a layer on a micro-mechanical or electronic component can be extracted and analyzed in exactly the same way as a full surface.

ConfoMap® ST software can be extended by adding modules for advanced surface texture analysis, dimensional analysis, grain and particle analysis, 3D Fourier analysis, the analysis of surface evolution, and statistics. It can also be upgraded to the top of the line ConfoMap® Premium package.

Working in ConfoMap®, a visual surface analysis report is built straightforwardly frame by frame in accordance with latest international and national metrology standards and methods. Every analysis step is recorded in an analysis workflow to assure full metrological traceability.

"The agreement with Carl Zeiss reflects Digital Surf's commitment to providing "best in class" surface imaging and analysis software solutions for confocal microscopes," stated François Blateyron, Chief Operating Officer of Digital Surf. "Surface imaging and analysis software based upon our Mountains Technology® is subject to continuous evolution by metrologists and software engineers. We are confident that it will meet the present and future expectations of users of Carl Zeiss' microscopes who carry out research on advanced materials or who are responsible for assuring the quality of products manufactured using these materials."