Glossary
Every technical word used in the manufacturing processes course, explained in plain words.
Plain-English meanings of the words you will meet most often in this course, with the lessons where each one matters most.
| Term | Meaning | See lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Abrasive | Hard grit, such as aluminum oxide or diamond, that removes material by scratching it away | 5.7, 6.4, 6.9 |
| Additive manufacturing | Building a part layer by layer from a 3D model; often called 3D printing | 8.1–8.10 |
| Alloy | A metal mixed with other elements to improve it, like steel (iron plus carbon) | 1.4, 12.1 |
| Annealing | Heating metal, then cooling it slowly, to make it softer and easier to shape | 12.1 |
| Autoclave | A heated pressure vessel that cures composite parts under heat and pressure | 10.1 |
| Binder | A glue that holds powder grains together until the part is sintered | 8.5, 9.2 |
| Blank | A flat piece cut from sheet metal, ready to be bent, stamped or drawn | 4.2, 6.1 |
| Brazing | Joining metals with a filler that melts above about 450 °C, without melting the parts | 7.3 |
| Brittle | Breaking suddenly, with little bending first, like glass or cast iron | 12.1 |
| Burr | A small, sharp ridge left on an edge after cutting, drilling or punching | 5.3, 6.1 |
| CAD | Computer-aided design: software for drawing the 3D model of a part | 5.2, 8.1 |
| CAM | Computer-aided manufacturing: software that turns a 3D model into tool paths for a machine | 5.2 |
| Case hardening | Hardening only the outer layer of a steel part, so the core stays tough | 12.2 |
| Casting | Pouring liquid metal into a mold, where it solidifies into shape | 1.1–1.8 |
| Cavity | The hollow inside a mold or die that has the shape of the part | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Chip | The small piece of material a cutting tool shaves off | 5.1, 5.2 |
| CNC | Computer numerical control: a machine tool moved by a program instead of by hand | 5.1, 5.2 |
| Cold working | Shaping metal at room temperature, which also makes it harder and stronger | 3.4, 3.5 |
| Composite | A material made of strong fibers, such as glass or carbon, bound in a resin | 10.1–10.4 |
| Core | An insert placed in a mold to form a hole or hollow inside the part | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Curing | The chemical hardening of a resin, often sped up by heat or light | 8.2, 10.1 |
| Cutting speed | How fast the cutting edge moves across the surface of the material | 5.1, 5.2 |
| Cycle time | The time a machine takes to make one part (or one shot of several), start to start | 2.1 |
| Die | A hardened tool that presses, cuts or shapes material, or forces it through an opening | 1.4, 3.3, 4.2 |
| Draft angle | A slight taper on walls, often a degree or two, so the part slides out of its mold | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Ductility | How far a material can stretch or bend before it breaks | 3.4, 4.1 |
| EDM | Electrical discharge machining: removing metal with many tiny electric sparks | 6.5, 6.6 |
| Ejector pins | Pins that push the finished part out of the mold, leaving small round marks | 1.4, 2.1 |
| Electrolyte | A liquid that carries electric current, used in plating, anodizing and electrochemical machining | 6.7, 11.5, 11.6 |
| Etching | Dissolving material away with a chemical, or a plasma, wherever a mask leaves it bare | 6.8, 13.2 |
| Extrusion | Pushing material through a shaped opening (a die) to make a long, constant profile | 3.3 |
| Fatigue | Cracking caused by many repeated loads, each too small to break the part on its own | 3.1, 12.3 |
| Feed | How far the cutting tool advances into the material, per turn or per minute | 5.1, 5.2 |
| Filler metal | Extra metal melted into a welded or brazed joint to fill it | 7.1, 7.3 |
| Fixture | A device that holds the part steady during machining or welding; a jig also guides the tool | 5.2, 7.1 |
| Flash | A thin fin of extra material squeezed out where the mold or die halves meet | 2.1, 3.1 |
| Forging | Shaping metal by hammering or pressing it, usually while it is hot | 3.1 |
| G-code | The line-by-line instruction language read by CNC machines and 3D printers | 5.2, 8.1 |
| Gate | The small opening where molten material enters the mold cavity | 1.4, 2.1 |
| Grain | One of the tiny crystals a metal is made of; their size and direction help set its strength | 1.8, 3.1 |
| Green part | A pressed or printed powder part before sintering: the right shape, but fragile | 8.5, 9.1 |
| Hardness | How well a material resists scratching and denting | 12.1 |
| Heat-affected zone (HAZ) | Metal beside a weld or cut that heat has changed without melting it | 6.3, 7.1 |
| Heat treatment | Controlled heating and cooling that changes a metal's hardness, strength or toughness | 12.1 |
| Hot working | Shaping metal hot enough that it stays soft and does not harden as it is worked | 3.1, 3.2 |
| Kerf | The width of the slot a cut removes, with a saw, laser, plasma or waterjet | 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 |
| Lathe | A machine that spins the workpiece while a cutting tool shapes it | 5.1 |
| Machining | Shaping a part by cutting material away with a tool | 5.1–5.9 |
| Mandrel | A shaped bar or form that material is pressed onto, wound around or pulled over | 4.3, 4.4, 10.4 |
| Melt pool | The small pool of liquid metal under a laser, arc or electron beam | 7.4, 8.4 |
| Mold | A hollow form that material fills and hardens in, taking its shape | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Near-net shape | Made so close to the final shape that little machining is needed afterwards | 1.2, 9.1 |
| Parting line | The thin line on a part where the two halves of the mold met | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Pattern | A copy of the part, slightly oversized, used to form the mold cavity | 1.1, 1.2 |
| Photoresist | A light-sensitive coating; light decides where it washes off, leaving a protective pattern | 6.8, 13.2 |
| Plastic deformation | A permanent change of shape: the material does not spring back | 3.1, 4.1 |
| Polymer | A material made of long chain molecules; plastics and rubbers are polymers | 2.1 |
| Porosity | Tiny holes or gas bubbles trapped inside a part, which weaken it | 1.1, 1.4, 9.3 |
| Powder bed | A thin layer of powder spread over the build area, then fused or glued where the part goes | 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 |
| Prepreg | Fiber cloth already soaked with resin, kept cold until it is laid up and cured | 10.1 |
| Press brake | A machine that bends sheet metal along a straight line between a punch and a die | 4.1 |
| Punch | The tool that pushes into or through sheet metal against a die | 4.2, 6.1 |
| Quench | Cooling hot metal very fast in water, oil or air; it hardens steel | 12.1 |
| Residual stress | Stress locked inside a part by welding, machining or uneven cooling; it can warp or crack it | 7.1, 12.3 |
| Resin | A liquid plastic that hardens (cures) into a solid | 8.2, 10.2 |
| Riser | A reservoir of extra molten metal that feeds the casting as it shrinks | 1.1 |
| Shielding gas | Gas, such as argon, that covers a weld to keep air away from the hot metal | 7.1 |
| Shrinkage | The loss of size as a material cools or cures, so molds are made slightly oversize | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Sintering | Heating packed powder until its grains bond together, without fully melting it | 8.3, 9.1 |
| Soldering | Joining with a filler that melts below about 450 °C, as on circuit boards | 7.3 |
| Spindle | The rotating shaft of a machine tool that holds and spins the cutter or the part | 5.1, 5.2 |
| Springback | The slight unbending of metal when the tool lets go, so parts are bent a little too far | 4.1 |
| Sprue | The main channel through which molten material enters a mold; runners carry it on to the gates | 1.1, 2.1 |
| Stamping | Pressing sheet metal between a punch and a die to cut or shape it | 4.2 |
| Superalloy | A nickel- or cobalt-based alloy that stays strong when red-hot, used in jet engines | 1.8 |
| Support structures | Temporary struts printed under overhangs and removed after printing | 8.1, 8.4 |
| Surface finish | How smooth a surface is, measured by the height of its tiny peaks and valleys (roughness) | 5.7, 5.9 |
| Tempering | Reheating hardened steel to a moderate temperature to make it less brittle | 12.1 |
| Thermoplastic | A plastic that softens when heated and hardens when cooled, again and again | 2.1 |
| Thermoset | A plastic that hardens for good by a chemical reaction and cannot be remelted | 2.6, 10.2 |
| Tolerance | The allowed variation from a target size, for example ±0.1 mm | 5.1, 5.7 |
| Tooling | The molds, dies and fixtures made for one particular part; often the largest up-front cost | 2.1, 4.2 |
| Toughness | How much energy a material absorbs before it cracks, for example in an impact | 12.1 |
| Undercut | A feature that would lock the part in the mold, so the mold needs a moving side piece | 2.1 |
| Wafer | A thin, round slice of silicon crystal on which chips are built | 13.1, 13.2 |
| Weld bead | The ridge of metal a weld leaves behind, often marked by ripples | 7.1 |
| Work hardening | Metal getting harder and stronger as it is bent, rolled or drawn cold | 3.2, 3.4 |
| Workpiece | The part being shaped or worked on in a machine | 5.1 |
| Yield strength | The stress (load per unit area) at which a material starts to deform permanently | 3.1, 4.1 |
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