A portion of a part’s surface that is either flat or smoothly curved. The boundary of a surface patch is a sharp corner or curve, where another surface patch begins. The number of surface patches that comprise a part is an indication of the part’s complexity.
The enclosed space between two mold halves which forms the shape of the desired part. Often times, molds are designed with more than one cavity, allowing multiple identical parts to be molded in one cycle. The most common number of cavities are 1, 2, 4, or 8.
An estimate of how many features occur on a part. Any protrusion or depression on the main body of the part can count as a feature, including holes, slots, pockets, pins, ribs, bosses, etc. The feature count is the primary indicator of a part's complexity.
The safe distance away from the workpiece at which the cutting tool can switch from the cutting feed rate to a rapid travel rate. This distance traveled before engaging the workpiece, as well as exiting from the workpiece, is included in the cut length.
The amount of material that will be removed from the end of a piece of bar stock by a facing or face milling operation, before the next workpiece is cut. The facing stock is used in determining how many workpieces a single piece of bar stock will yield.
Wipe bending, also called edge bending, is a sheet metal bending method in which a sheet is held between a wipe die and pressure pad, and a punch presses against the edge of the sheet. The sheet will bend against the radius of the edge of the wipe die.
Sometimes called the runner system or gating system, the feed system describes all of the channels in a mold that allow the molten material to feed into the cavities. This system may include the pouring basin, sprue, runner, riser, gate, etc.
The percentage of time for a task, such as the setup time or production time, where workers are paid at the specified labor rate. A manual labor task will have a usage of 100%, while a partially automated tasks will have a lower labor usage.
