Influence of surface texturing on scratch/mar visibility for polymeric materials: a review

Surface texturing has long played a vital role in determining both the look and feel of modern consumer goods. Recently, texture patterns have also shown to be an effective method for enhancing the scratch resistance of polymeric surfaces, which are more sensitive to scratch damage due to their relatively low strengths and stiffness. This paper examines the emerging studies of scratch-resistant surface textures and analyses the key principles and challenges faced by texture design and the assessment of scratch resistance. The analysis of scratch resistance is broken into three key sections: (1) the influence of the base material on deformation characteristics, (2) the influence of surface texturing on scratch damage and visibility, and (3) the influence of human vision and the capacity of textures to obscure scratch damage. The complex interactions between these three facets highlight the wealth of opportunities for further study in this area, and the need for improved methods for quantifying scratch resistance for these materials. This paper also presents experimental results to demonstrate the variation in scratch damage and texture effects.