The Science Of Flatness

Flatness is an often misrepresented property of our own intuition. Many of the objects we consider flat, pale in comparison to surfaces manufactured to actually be flat. It’s also a property that our industrialized world relies on to function. While most of us experience flatness as part of aesthetics and ergonomics, flatness in manufacturing is a critical property of positioning, mating and sealing parts together. The high pressures produced by combustion are contained by two mating flat surfaces aided by a gasket. Let’s look at a sheet of float glass. The floating process self levels the glass, giving it a relatively flat, uniform thickness.