builds a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design (CAD)model, usually by successively adding material layer by layer.
3D Printing
Assembly
The act of combining components into a whole product
CNC machining
A subtractive manufacturing method that uses re-programmed software to control cutting tools to remove material from a block of raw material togenerate a component
Caliper
A device used to measure the distance between two opposite sides of an object.
Deformation
Changes in an part's shape or form due to the application of a force or forces
EDM
A manufacturing process whereby a desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges (sparks)
Extrusion
Grinding
Helicoil
Lathe
A material is pushed through a die of the desired cross-section£¬to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile.
An abrasive machining process that uses a grinding wheel as the cutting tool to produce very fine finishes and accurate dimensions
A machine that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object with symmetry about that axis.
A threaded insert, is a fastener element that is inserted into a part to add a threaded hole. They may be used to repair a stripped threaded hole, provide a durable threaded hole in a soft material.
Laser etching
A subtractive manufacturing process that uses a laser beam to create texts or images on the part surfaces.
Nut
A fastener with a threaded hole, usually used in conjunction with a mating bolt to fasten multiple parts together
Plug Gauge
An inspection tools that crewed into the part to be tested, the "GO" end should fully enter the part; the "NOT GO" end should not.
Pad Printing
A printing process that using an indirect offset (gravure) printing process to transfer an image via silicone pad onto a part surface.
Pin gauge
A fundamental process that cut/bend/punch a thin and flat metal piece into a variety of shapes.
Sheet metal
A set of pin gauges used to measure holes only a few millimeters in diameter.
SLA
Is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating plastic models, prototypes and production parts layer by layer.
Silk-screen
A printing process that using a screen(stencil) to apply ink on the part surface. Each individual color is applied using a different screen, one at a time, combined to achieve the final look.
Vacuum Casting
Is a method for making plastic prototypes or low volumes of parts formed from silicone molds. Copies made in this way show great surface detail and fidelity to the original pattern.
Welding
Is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool causing fusion.
Wire cutting
Is a fabrication process typically used to cut plates and to make punches, tools and dies from hard metals that are difficult to machine with other methods.
Anodizing is an electrochemical process that forms an oxide layer on aluminium part surface, leading to better corrosion and wear resistance.
Anodizing
Black oxide
Is a conversion coating for stainless steel, copper and copper based alloys, zinc, powdered metals, and silver solder. It is used to add mil corrosion resistance, for appearance and to minimize light reflection
Brushed
A surface finish that produced by polishing the metal with a 120¨C180 grit sand paper, belt or wheel. Commonly works for stainless steel, aluminium and nickel.
Clear
A surface finish that transparent with glossy, or original color of an object like clear anodizing.
Emboss
A stamping process for producing raised or sunken designs or relief in sheet metal. It is often combined with foil stamping to create a shiny, 3D effect.
Frost
A translucent with sand blasted texture finish on the part surface.
Glossy
Knurling
Laser engraving
Machined finish
is an optical property which indicates how well a surface reflects light in a specular (mirror-like) direction. It is one of important parameters that are used to describe the visual appearance of an object.
A manufacturing process, produce a pattern of straight, diamon or crossed lines on the parts surface, usually by lathe.
The original/natural surface finish that comes out of machining.
A marking technique that using laser beam impinges on the material, creating the customized on the part surface. The resulting mark is permanent and very resistant to abrasion.
Painting
Is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (support base).
Pantone
The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.
Polishing
Is the process of creating a smooth and shiny surface by rubbing it or using a chemical action, leaving a surface with a significant specular reflection.
Powder Coating
Powder coating is an surface treatment of applying a protective and decorative finish to a wide range of metal materials and products that are used by both industry and private consumers.
Roughness
Is the measure of the finely spaced micro-irregularities on the surface texture which is composed of three components, namely roughness, waviness, and form. Ra is commonly used to indicate the level of surface roughness
Sanding
Is the act or process of smoothing or polishing a surface with sandpaper or sand.
Sand blasting
is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material (usually sand or bead) against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, or remove surface contaminants.
Texture
Is the nature of a surface as defined by the three characteristics of lay, surface roughness, and waviness. It comprises the small, local deviations of a surface from the perfectly flat ideal (a true plane).
Vapor Polishing
Is a method of polishing plastics to reduce the surface roughness or improve transparency in plastic, like when plastic is used to make a lightweight optical quality lens.
Plating
A finishing operations that involves applying a coating of metal over a base metal substrate to give various desirable properties to the component.
Satin
This silky, low-sheen, smooth paint finish actually retains its pearl-like sheen when dry. A satin finish reflects more light than matte and stands up well to washing.
CNC machining is a subtractive rapid manufacturing process. The part is machined from a plastic block, plastic bar, or metal block, metal bar. It¡¯s one of the most accurate manufacturing processes for fast turn-around parts.
What¡¯s is CNC Machining ?
Allowance
is material that is intentionally left on parts and welded assemblies at various stages of production. It enables manufacturers to compensate for distortion or warping by machining fits at intermediate stages of fabrication and at final machining.
Automatic Tool Changer
A device that allow the necessary tool automatically placed in the spindle for machining purpose
Bore£¨Boring£©
is the process of enlarging a hole that has already been drilled (or cast) by means of a single-point cutting tool. Boring is used to achieve greater accuracy of the diameter of a hole, and can be used to cut a tapered hole.
CNC Milling
The cutter is placed in the spindle where it rotates. The workpiece then moves past the cutter so that chips may be sliced off. The act of cutting a workpiece on a mill is called ¡°Milling¡±.
CNC Turning
is a manufacturing process in which bars of material are held in a chuck and rotated while a tool is fed to the piece to remove material to create the desired shape.
Chamfer
Chip
Drill
Cutter
Is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. A form of bevel, it is created at a 45¡ã angle to two adjoining right-angled faces.
Is the wastage substance that formed on the workpiece by the edge faces of the tool/cutter during milling or turnning process.
are cutting tools typically used in milling machines or machining centres to perform milling operations. They remove material by their movement within the machine or directly from the cutter's shape
A cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool,
Fillet
A fillet is a rounding of an interior or exterior corner of a part.Fillets give a part better flow and less resistance. Using a fillet also eliminates any sharp edges that can be easily damaged, or that could cause injury when the part is handled
fixture
A work-holding or support device used in securely locating and supporting a work-piece, ensuring that all parts produced using the fixture will maintain conformity and interchangeability
feed rate
Feed rate is the velocity at which the cutter is fed, that is, advanced against the workpiece. It is expressed in units of distance per revolution for turning and boring (typically inches per revolution [ipr] or millimeters per revolution). It can be expressed thus for milling also,
Glass Fiber
Is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. It's lightweight, extremely strong, and robust material. Glass fibers are used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products
lubrication
Is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and/or wear in a contact between two surfaces, improving the performance and health of their CNC machines
Sectioning
A process that split a 3D drawing of a part into several pieces, and machining them separately, then glue or weld them together to complete a whole part.
Set-up
Is the process of actually converting the equipment. This may be achieved by adjusting the equipment to correspond to the next product or by changing non-adjustable "change parts" to accommodate the product. Typically it will be a combination of both.
Tolerance
Is a range of how far a true measurement can range from what's intended.e.g. a dimension representing as 25¡À 0.5 means that this dimension value can be in between 24.5 mm to 25.5 mm.
Three-jaw chuck
Is a device that it holds the rotating tool whereas in lathes it holds the rotating workpiece on the drilling and milling machine. On a lathe the chuck is mounted on the spindle which rotates within the headstock.
Flipping
It is slight vibration of cutter during machining process. It usually damages the surface of workpiece.
Strain
Is a measure of deformation representing the displacement between particles in the body relative to a reference length
Programming
CNC programming (Computer Numerical Control Programming) is utilized by manufacturers to create program instructions for computers to control a machine tool.
Stress
Is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighbouring particles of a continuous material exert on each other.
Tapping
is the process of cutting a thread inside a hole so that a cap screw or bolt can be threaded into the hole. Also, it is used to make thread on nuts. Tapping can be done on the lathe by power feed or by hand.Regardless of the method, the hole must be drilled with the proper size tap drill and chamferred at the end.
Is a hollow space in the part because some air can't be sucked out of the mold during vacuum casting process.
bubble
box construction
Is an opened-box to hanging the master model in it and hold the liquid silicone to form the silicone mold. Usually built with aluminium plates.
Cavity
A device used in casting and moulding processes to produce external shape and surfaces of parts.
Core
A device used in casting and moulding processes to produce internal cavities and reentrant angles of parts.
Draft
In engineering, draft is the amount of taper for molded or cast parts perpendicular to the parting line. It makes the act of de-molding easier.
Gate
A gate is a designed small opening to allow the liquid resin into the silicone mold cavity, a successful gate design is determined by part structure, size and location.
Insert
Master model
Over-molding
Oven
Is a assistant tool in the silicone mold to form some special features such as deep hole, narrow slot, undercut of parts
Is an object that made by 3D printing or CNC machining according to 3D drawing of final workpiece. It is used as a part to form the cavity and core into the silicome mold.
For vacuum casting, oven is a thermally insulated chamber used forsolidifying silicone mold and workpieces after casting, and pre-heating silicone mold and liquid resin.
Is the process of adding an additional layer of material over an already existing piece or part. Usually a rubber part is molded over another rigid component.
Painting
It is the dividing line that splits the core and cavity halves of a molded part. It is usually created by manual with knife for silicone mold.
Polyurethane
Known as PU or PUR, is a polymer composed of organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. It is a general designation of all the vacuum casting material.
Release agent
Is a chemical used to prevent casting resin parts from bonding to mold surfaces. So as to make the part easier to be taken out of silicone mold.
Solidify
A process that makes liquid silione or resin become solid or hard. For vacuum casting, it is done in oven.
Shore Hardness
Shore hardness is a measure of the resistance of a material to the penetration of a needle under a defined spring force. It is determined as a number from 0 to 100 on the scales A or D. The higher the number, the higher the hardness. The letter A is used for flexible types and the letter D for rigid types.
Silicone
ilicone, by contrast, is a synthetic polymer made up of silicon, oxygen and other elements, most typically carbon and hydrogen. Silicone is generally a liquid or a flexible, rubber-like plastic, and has a number of useful properties, such as low toxicity and high heat resistance. It also provides good electrical insulation.
Plastic injection molding is a manufacturing process for making custom plastic part. The plastic resin will be heated, melted in a injection molding machine, and then injected into a custom-design injection mold. With help of the mold, the melting resin cool down as the shape as designed, and then be ejected as an injection molded part.
What¡¯s is Plastic injection molding ?
2 plates mold
2 plates mold have the simplest mold structure. One part of the mold cavity is on the movable mold, which is B plate, the other part is on the fixed mold, which is A plate. The product and the runner are left together on cavity side when the mold is opening.
Automatic Tool Changer
A device that allow the necessary tool automatically placed in the spindle for machining purpose
Bore£¨Boring£©
is the process of enlarging a hole that has already been drilled (or cast) by means of a single-point cutting tool. Boring is used to achieve greater accuracy of the diameter of a hole, and can be used to cut a tapered hole.
CNC Milling
The cutter is placed in the spindle where it rotates. The workpiece then moves past the cutter so that chips may be sliced off. The act of cutting a workpiece on a mill is called ¡°Milling¡±.
CNC Turning
is a manufacturing process in which bars of material are held in a chuck and rotated while a tool is fed to the piece to remove material to create the desired shape.
Chamfer
Chip
Drill
Cutter
Is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. A form of bevel, it is created at a 45¡ã angle to two adjoining right-angled faces.
Is the wastage substance that formed on the workpiece by the edge faces of the tool/cutter during milling or turnning process.
are cutting tools typically used in milling machines or machining centres to perform milling operations. They remove material by their movement within the machine or directly from the cutter's shape
A cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool,
Fillet
A fillet is a rounding of an interior or exterior corner of a part.Fillets give a part better flow and less resistance. Using a fillet also eliminates any sharp edges that can be easily damaged, or that could cause injury when the part is handled
fixture
A work-holding or support device used in securely locating and supporting a work-piece, ensuring that all parts produced using the fixture will maintain conformity and interchangeability
feed rate
Feed rate is the velocity at which the cutter is fed, that is, advanced against the workpiece. It is expressed in units of distance per revolution for turning and boring (typically inches per revolution [ipr] or millimeters per revolution). It can be expressed thus for milling also,
Glass Fiber
Is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. It's lightweight, extremely strong, and robust material. Glass fibers are used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products
lubrication
Is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and/or wear in a contact between two surfaces, improving the performance and health of their CNC machines
Sectioning
A process that split a 3D drawing of a part into several pieces, and machining them separately, then glue or weld them together to complete a whole part.
Set-up
Is the process of actually converting the equipment. This may be achieved by adjusting the equipment to correspond to the next product or by changing non-adjustable "change parts" to accommodate the product. Typically it will be a combination of both.
Tolerance
Is a range of how far a true measurement can range from what's intended.e.g. a dimension representing as 25¡À 0.5 means that this dimension value can be in between 24.5 mm to 25.5 mm.
Three-jaw chuck
Is a device that it holds the rotating tool whereas in lathes it holds the rotating workpiece on the drilling and milling machine. On a lathe the chuck is mounted on the spindle which rotates within the headstock.
Flipping
It is slight vibration of cutter during machining process. It usually damages the surface of workpiece.
Strain
Is a measure of deformation representing the displacement between particles in the body relative to a reference length
Programming
CNC programming (Computer Numerical Control Programming) is utilized by manufacturers to create program instructions for computers to control a machine tool.
Stress
Is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighbouring particles of a continuous material exert on each other.
Tapping
is the process of cutting a thread inside a hole so that a cap screw or bolt can be threaded into the hole. Also, it is used to make thread on nuts. Tapping can be done on the lathe by power feed or by hand.Regardless of the method, the hole must be drilled with the proper size tap drill and chamferred at the end.
