| Word | Description |
| 3D Printing | Three-dimensional printing is a method of converting a virtual 3D model into a physical object. 3D printing is a category of rapid prototyping technology. 3D printers typically work by 'printing' successive layers on top of the previous to build up a three dimensional object |
| Acronyms | RP – Rapid Prototyping LS – Laser Sintering (see also SLS) SLA – Stereolithography FDM – Fused Deposition Modeling 3DP – 3D Printing CNC – Computer Numeric Control CAD – Computer Aided Design CAM – Computer Aided Manufacturing .STL – Stereolithography File RTV- Room Temperature Vulcanize (see also RTV Mold / Urethane Casting) CMM – Coordinate Measuring Machine RFQ – Request for quotation |
| Ash Content | The amount of residue when a master pattern is burned out during investment casting. Masters with high ash content require a time consuming flushing process. |
| Beam Diamter | Is the actual diameter of the laser beam that cures the resin at the vat. The finer the beam diameter the better the resolution and part accuracy |
| Bounding Box | Is the measurement of the part overall largest dimensions. It is typically given in XYZ format where: "X" is the lenght "Y" is the width "Z" is the height |
| Bridge Tooling | Relating to molds or dies intended to fill demand between early prototype, or soft tooling, and production tooling. |
| Build Envelope | Measurement of the machines part size limitations given by the X, Y and Z axes. |
| Build Time | Length of time for the physical construction of a rapid prototype, excluding preparation and post processing time. Also known as run time. |
| Cavity | Mold component that forms the exterior or external surface of the closure. |
| Chord | Line segment that connects two distinct points on an arc |
| Chord Height | Distance from the chord to the surface that the chord approximates. One of several terms that relate to the control and tolerance of the STL file |
| Concept Model | Physical model intended primarily for design review, not meant to be sufficiently accurate or durable for full functional or physical testing. Examples foam models, 3D printed parts, rapid prototype parts. |
| Conpression | Process of compacting digital data to reduce file size for electronic transmission of data archival. ie..winzip http://www.winzip.com/index.htm |
| Coordinate Measuring Machine | A device that determines 3D spatial coordinates from a physical part. The output is typically used for inspection and can be used for reverse engineering. also know as: "CMM" |
| Core | Mold component that forms the internal surface of the closure. |
| Dedicated Server | A dedicated server is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. Couped with other secuirty features this makes dedicated servers a requirement for companies that house customers sensative information on there servers |
| EDM | Acronym for "Electrical Discharge Machining". A slow, but extremely precise method of machining using electrical sparks to remove material in very small increments. |
| Engineering plastics | Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that exhibit superior mechanical and thermal properties in a wide range of conditions over and above more commonly used ‘commodity’ plastics. The term usually refers to thermoplastic materials rather than thermosetting ones. |
| Epoxy Tooling | Indirect rapid tooling process where the mold is created by casting an epoxy resin, usually mixed with aluminum powder, against a pattern. Suitable for injection molding in low quantities. |
| Facet | One triangular element used to approximate the surface of a model. A facet is defined as three nodes and an outward normal. It takes thousands of triangles to define a complex model. The facet data is kept in an STL file. |
| Facet Deviation | Maximum distance between the triangular element of an STL file and the surface that it approximates. See also chord height. |
| Family Mold | Tool that has cavities for two or more different parts. |
| Feature | Discrete attributes of a model or prototype that include holes, slots, ribs, bosses, snap fits and other basic elements of a product design. |
| Fit & Form | Shape and size of a component and its relationship to mating components. Often used in the context of design analysis of the adequacy of a part in terms of its size, shape and conformance to constraints imposed by mating or nested components. |
| FOB | FOB, is an abbreviation for Free On Board. The term commonly used when shipping goods, to indicate who pays loading and transportation costs, and/or the point at which the responsibility and ownership of the goods transfers from shipper to buyer. |
| Founndry | A foundry is a factory which produces castings of metal, both ferrous and non-ferrous. |
| Fused Deposition Modeling | A thermoplastic extrusion-based rapid prototyping technology. |
| Injection Molding | Manufacturing process where molten plastic is introduced into a tool or die with the use of pressure. Commonly applied to both prototype and production requirements. |
| Investment Casting | Method of production that stresses the manufacturing of small lots of customized goods rather than large volumes of standardized products. |
| Layer | A thin horizontal slice of the STL file used to fabricate a rapid prototype. Typically between 0.001 and 0.010 in. (0.025 and 0.25 mm) in thickness. Also see slice. |
| Layer Thickness | Is the thickness of the layer that will be produced on the SLA machine. The thinner the layer slice the better the resolution and part accuracy |
| Living Hinge | Thin section of plastic used to connect two parts (typically the top and bottom of a container) and hold them together while allowing them to open and close. |
| Mass Customization | Manufacturing process, which utilizes an expendable pattern (the investment), to produce metal parts. A ceramic mold is made by repeatedly dipping the pattern in a ceramic slurry solution followed by fine grain silica sand. The pattern is then burned out in an autoclave or furnace, which simultaneously sinters and strengthens the ceramic shell. Molten metal is then poured into the shell. After cooling and solidification, the shell is destroyed to reveal the final metal part. |
| Minimum Feature Size | Refers to the smallest feature size on a part that can be repeatedly produced. These do vary across different machines so please note the machine and process to arrive at the minimum feature size |
| Multiple Part Discount | Multiple Parts Discounts reward customer for filling up our machine build platforms. The closer there order gets to filling up platform the larger discount can be given. This discount will be itemized on the quote |
| nanoparticle | A nanoparticle (or nanopowder or nanocluster or nanocrystal) is a microscopic particle with at least one dimension less than 100 nm. |
| Pattern | An object or part which possesses the mechanical geometry of a final object or part, but which may not possess the desired mechanical, thermal or other attributes of the final parts. Patterns are used in secondary processes to form tools to make parts for end-uses. |
| Photopolymer | Material systems which change from a liquid to a solid state upon application of light (UV radiation). Photopolymers are typically complex mixtures of compounds rather than consisting of a single component. |
| Polyamide | A synthetic polymer of the nylon family |
| Post Processing | Secondary operations necessary to turn an additively fabricated-part into a useable one. Such operations may include cleaning, removal of supports or unused powder, post-curing and surface finishing operations such as sanding. (Also see secondary operations) |
| Prototype | Physical model of a part or product during the product development process. Depending upon the purpose, prototypes may be non-working, functionally working, or both functionally and aesthetically complete. Derived from Latin term for "first form". |
| Prototype tooling | Short life molds and dies used in the fabrication of molded, stamping and dies and other parts. This approach has a low life expectancy compared to hardened production tooling. May yield from one to as many as 50,000 parts depending on methods and materials utilized. |
| QuickCast | 3D Systems' trade name for a Stereolithography build style used to make investment casting patterns.A trademarked process of 3D Systems for a stereolithography build style that reduces the mass of the pattern to accommodate the investment casting process. |
| Rapid Manufacturing | Refers to the process of fabricating parts directly for end-use from a rapid prototyping machine |
| Rapid Tooling | Most often refers to the process of fabricating tools from a rapid prototyping process. Rapid tooling may utilize direct or indirect methods: In direct methods, the part fabricated by the RP machine itself is used as the tool. In indirect methods, the part fabricated by the RP machine is used as a pattern in a secondary process. The resulting part from the secondary process is then used as the tool. In recent years, the term rapid tooling has been borrowed by practitioners of industry-standard methods such as subtractive CNC to refer to the ability to streamline these processes to compete with additive technologies. |
| Resin | General classification of non-metallic materials and compounds. For rapid prototyping, the term is most often associated with the liquid state of stereolithography photopolymers. For molding operations, the term is a reference to any thermoplastic or thermoset material.(see photopolymer) |
| Resolution | The minimum feature size that a process can be expected to reproduce. In the XY plane it can depend on pixels, laser spot size and mechanical precision. In the Z dimension it depends on the layer thickness. |
| RFQ | Stands for "Request For Quotation", generally used when requesting projects that connot be quoted automaticly |
| RP Tempering | RP Tempering™ is a coating that allows for manufactured parts or prototypes to be more flexible and durable. Utilizing the RP Tempering process, multiple physical, mechanical and thermal characteristics can be enhanced. |
| RTV Molding | Soft tooling technique that utilizes room-temperature vulcanized (RTV) rubber material to form molds that are cast from machined or rapid prototype patterns. Commonly used to produce small lots (25 to 100 pieces) in urethane materials. also knowen as "Silicone Rubber Molding or Rubber Molding" |
| Sand Casting | Manufacturing process for the production of metal, including gray iron, castings. Sand is packed against a form (tool) to create each half of the tool. After combining the tool halves, metal is cast into the cavity and allowed to cool. To remove the metal casting, the sand tool is destroyed. |
| Secondary Operations | Manual or machine-based operations which must be carried out on a part fabricated by a rapid prototyping system before use. Secondary operations may include, post curing, support-removal, sanding, machining, etc. |
| Selective Laser Sintering | A rapid prototyping technology in which powders are fused layerwise by a laser. The technology produces accurate parts and models in engineering polymers, metals and polymer-coated sand for casting applications. |
| Spin Casting | Process that uses rubber molds to create metal castings in low melting temperature alloys. The mold is rotated and material is poured into its center. Centrifugal force fills the mold with molten material. |
| StairStepping | A type of inaccuracy, as well as a visual appearance artifact It refers to the stepped appearance of the edges of a part, a consequence of additive fabricating a part in layers of necessarily finite thickness. also reffered to "Build Lines" |
| STL | This file format used in industry to define the geometry of the part to be made. STL files are created by CAD programs by translating their native or neutral files into the STL format. The STL file defines the coordinates of numerous triangular facets that approximate the shape of an object or part. This is the standard file format for all rapid prototyping processes. The extension stands for StereoLithography but the format applies to all major rapid prototyping technologies. |
| Strerolithography | A rapid prototyping process that fabricates a part layerwise by hardening a photopolymer with a guided laser beam. see also: SLA |
| Subtractive Manufacturing | The fabrication of a part by removing material from a stock shape of material. The stock shape may be a prismatic solid, cylinder, plate, etc. The removal of material may by cutting, turning, electro-discharge or other means. Common machinery such as millers, lathes and drills are subtractive tools. |
| Support Structure | Many rapid prototyping machines need a means to hold in place unsupported geometries during fabrication, such as the top of a part in the shape of the letter "T." These supports are usually calculated and added to the part by the system's software and may be formed of the same material as the part, or from a different material entirely. Support structures are either mechanically removed or dissolved away in secondary operations before the part can be used. |
| Surface Normal | Vector that is perpendicular to a surface or facet in an STL file. For the facets of the STL file, the direction of the vector indicates the outward facing side of the facet. |
| Urethane Casting | Urethane Castings are produced using low-cost silicone molds, which are sometimes called RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanization) molds. The process begins with a Master Pattern, which can be constructed using rapid prototyping . Depending on the material to be cast, as well as other factors, the master pattern may be scaled to compensate for shrinkage in the final material. In most cases, draft is not an issue and small undercuts are not a problem because the silicone mold is flexible. |
| UV | Ultraviolet Light energy situated beyond the visible spectrum at its violet end -- having a wavelength shorter than wavelengths of visible light and longer than those of X rays Often used in the curing of photopolymer resins. |
| Vaccume Forming | Process for producing plastic parts by heating plastic sheet and drawing it against a form when air is pulled through the form. |
| Vacuum Casting | Vacuum Casting is a means of casting small metal parts or jewelry that have fine detail or for casting various plastic materials. A porous or vented mold is used and is placed on a table or container where vacuum is applied. The liquid to be cast will be driven into the mold by atmospheric pressure, while the vacuum will also remove trapped air that would otherwise impede the free flow of the liquid casting material. Vacuum casting is applied as an alternative to centrifugal casting of metals which is used in similar situations. |
| Vector | A one-dimensions definintion of space or direction. |
| Z Height | Refers to the height of the tallest feature on the part. For example a cylinder should always we grown in the up right position to ensure the best circularity. So a 1” diameter cylinder that is 5 in long will have a z height of 5 in |