Industrial Manufacturing Knowledge Base

Glossary of Manufacturing Terms

Definitions of the die casting, CNC machining, tooling, materials and automotive manufacturing terms used throughout the knowledge base, with links to dedicated articles where available.

Glossary of Manufacturing Terms

A working glossary of the abbreviations and process terms used across the knowledge base. Terms are grouped by discipline. Where a term has a dedicated article, a link is provided.

Die casting

  • HPDC (High Pressure Die Casting) — casting process where molten metal is forced into a steel die at high velocity and pressure. See High Pressure Die Casting Parameters.
  • Cold chamber — HPDC variant where molten metal is ladled into a shot sleeve; used for aluminum and magnesium. See Aluminum Die Casting Process.
  • Hot chamber — HPDC variant with an integral gooseneck; used for zinc and low-melting alloys.
  • Shot sleeve — cylinder in a cold-chamber machine that holds the poured shot before the plunger pushes it into the die.
  • Plunger / ram — piston that accelerates and intensifies the metal in the shot sleeve.
  • Gate velocity — metal speed through the gate; typically 30–60 m/s for aluminum HPDC.
  • Fill time — time to fill the cavity, usually 20–100 ms for thin-wall parts.
  • Intensification pressure — final hydraulic-amplified pressure on the solidifying metal, typically 40–100 MPa on the metal.
  • Vacuum assist — evacuating the die cavity (to ~50–150 mbar, super-vacuum below ~50 mbar) to reduce gas porosity. See Vacuum Assisted Die Casting.
  • Porosity — voids in the casting; gas porosity (rounded, from trapped air) vs shrinkage porosity (dendritic, at hot spots). See Die Casting Porosity.
  • Blister — surface bubble from expanding trapped gas, often during heat treatment.
  • Soldering — molten metal welding to the die steel, controlled by Fe content (0.7–1.1% in A380/ADC12).
  • Heat checking — networks of surface cracks from cyclic thermal stress. See Die Life and Thermal Fatigue.
  • Draft angle — taper on walls to aid ejection; 1–3° external, 2–5° internal/cores. See Die Casting DFM.
  • Parting line — interface where the two die halves meet.
  • Runner / gate / overflow / vent — feed, entrance, scrap reservoir and gas escape features. See Gating and Runner Design.
  • ADC12 / A380 / A383 / A356 — common die casting alloys. See Aluminum Die Casting Alloys.
  • AZ91D / AM60B — magnesium die casting alloys. See Magnesium Alloys.
  • Zamak — family of zinc die casting alloys. See Zinc Die Casting Alloys.
  • T5 / T6 / T7 — precipitation treatments; conventional HPDC is normally not heat treated because porosity blisters. See Heat Treatment of Castings.

CNC machining

  • CNC — computer numerical control of machine tools.
  • Milling — rotating cutter removes material; see CNC Milling vs Turning.
  • Turning — single-point tool cuts a rotating workpiece.
  • 5-axis — machine with two rotational axes; see 5-Axis Machining.
  • Cutting speed (v_c) — surface speed at the cutter, m/min; v_c = π·D·n/1000.
  • Feed per tooth (f_z) — advance per cutter tooth; table feed v_f = f_z·z·n.
  • Speeds and feeds — the complete set of spindle speed and feed parameters. See Speeds and Feeds Guide.
  • GD&T — geometric dimensioning and tolerancing. See Tolerances and GD&T.
  • Datum — reference feature for measurement.
  • Surface finish (Ra) — arithmetic mean roughness; see Surface Finish Guide.
  • DFM — design for manufacture. See CNC DFM.

Tooling & molding

  • H13 — standard hot-work tool steel for dies and molds. See Tool Steels.
  • Die casting die — the steel tool; see Die Casting Die Design.
  • Hot runner / cold runner — mold melt-delivery systems. See Hot Runner vs Cold Runner.
  • Weld / knit line — where two flow fronts meet and fuse incompletely.
  • Sink mark — surface depression from shrinkage at thick sections.
  • Tryout — proving a tool; T1, T2 are successive sampling iterations. See Tooling Lead Time and Tryout.

Quality & automotive

  • IATF 16949 — automotive QMS standard built on ISO 9001. See IATF 16949 Overview.
  • APQP — advanced product quality planning. See APQP and PPAP.
  • PPAP — production part approval process (18 elements, submission levels).
  • FMEA — failure mode and effects analysis (DFMEA / PFMEA).
  • SPC — statistical process control; MSA — measurement systems analysis.
  • Cpk / Ppk — process capability indices; ≥1.33 critical, ≥1.67 safety.
  • AQL — acceptable quality limit (sampling). See Inspection and Acceptance.
  • RFQ — request for quotation. See RFQ Package.
  • NRE — non-recurring engineering (tooling/development cost).
  • Megacasting / giga casting — very large structural die castings. See Giga Casting.
  • Lightweighting — reducing mass to cut energy use and emissions. See Automotive Lightweighting.