Glossário!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

3D Keltool™                         An indirect rapid tooling process using powdered metal and a pattern such as a SL model. This technology is owned by 3D Systems.

 

3D printing ™                        (3DP) a low cost approach to rapid prototyping incorporateing the use of high speed with lower accuracy compared to higher end RP equipment.  Sometimes associated with the term “concept modeler”. Original process and terminology developed at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), but now widely used as a generic term.  

 

3D Plotting                             3D Plotting by Sanders Prototype Inc.

 

3D Systems™                        (RP OEM) 3D Systems, Inc. A manufacturer of stereolithography systems, and multi-jet modeling (MJM) a type of rapid prototyping printer equipment.  ( U.S. )

 

3D Welding                            3D Welding by Cranfield University

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ACES™                                  (Accurate Clear Epoxy Solid) a stereolithography build style that offers increased accuracy and improved surface finish.

 

Actua™                                     RP system from 3D Systems .  Based on Multi-Jet Modeling technology (MJM), the system has been replaced by the  Thermojet.™

 

aliasing                                   Refers to the jagged lines or edges that can appear in computer-drawn images.  Aliasing occurs as a result of using pixels to draw smooth lines or edges.

Air Bubble

Stereolithography                  Air Bubble Stereolithography by Osaka Sangyo University

 

 

alpha test                                In-house testing of preproduction products to find and eliminate the most obvious design deficiencies.  See also beta test

 

ASCII                                     A code for representing characters in a numeric form.  ASCII (pronounced “asskee”) files are text files that can be displayed on a screen or printed without special formatting or using another program.

 

associative geometry             A system that permits placing of graphic elements based on a relationship (for example: parallel to) with existing graphic elements.  Elements placed associatively maintain the relationship when the existing graphic element is manipulated.

 

associativity                           Operating under a single integrated database structure.  Allows engineers to make changes in any application (i.e., design, drawing, assembly, mold, etc.) and have those changes reflected instantly throughout all applications as well as in every deliverable (including: drawings, bill-of-materials, NC toolpaths, etc.) 

 

attribute                                  A unique property of a display element picture or network.  The key words placed in an index to facilitate organization and management (i.e., document number, creation dates, or originator).  This information is used to query and retrieve a document from the system.

 

Autostrade                              (RP OEM)  Autostrade Co., Ltd.   A manufacturer of  stereolithography systems.  ( Japan )

                                               

axis (CAD)                             An imaginary line segment upon which all measurements are made when creating or documenting a CAD model in 3D space.  The complete coordinate system is comprised of an X, Y and Z axis.

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b-rep                                       (boundary representation) 1) A database method that defines and stores a solid as a set of vertices, edges, and faces (points, lines, curves and surfaces) which completely enclose its volume. 2) A b-rep does not necessarily define an enclosed volume. For RP, it is desirable for it to do so, but the b-rep can describe open (i.e. nonsense) surfaces.

 

b-spline                                   (bi-cubic spline) A sequence of parametric polynomial curves (typically quadratic or cubic polynomials) forming a smooth fit between a sequence of points in 3D space.

 

BPM                                       Ballistic Particle Manufacturing (BPM) by BPM.  RP process where wax materials are deposited with an multi-axis ink jet print head.

 

Beam Interference

Solidification                           Beam Interference Solidification by Batelle Development Corporation

 

Beijing Yinhua                        (RP OEM)  Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototypes and Mould Making Technology Co. Ltd.  Equipment combines paper lamination and fused deposition modeling in one machine. ( China )

 

beta test                                  An external test of pre-production products in field situations to find those faults that are more likely to show in actual use than in controlled in-house tests.  See also alpha test.

 

Bezier curves                         A quadratic (or greater) polynomial for describing complex curves and surfaces.

 

binary system                         A numbering system in base two, using ones and zeros.

 

binary word                             A related grouping of ones and zeroes having meaning assigned by position in the binary system.

 

bit                                            A single digit number in base-2, or binary notation (either a 1 or zero).  The smallest piece of information understood by a computer.

 

bitmap                                     A matrix of pixels representing an image.

 

BOM                                      (Bill of Materials) A listing of all subassemblies, intermediate parts and raw materials that go into a parent assembly, showing the quantity of each required.

 

Boolean operation                  Algebraic or symbolic formulas used in CAD to expand design rules checking programs and to expedite the construction of geometric figures.

 

boundary (CAD)                     A 3D outline of a data volume.

 

BPM                                       (Ballistic Particle Manufacturing) A rapid prototyping process where wax materials are deposited with an ink jet print head. This company is out of business.

 

bridge tooling                         A relative term relating to tooling intended to fill a gap between early prototype, or soft tooling, and full production capable tooling.  If production volumes do not materialize as projected, a bridge tool may remain as the production tool.

 

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CAD                                        (Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Drafting) A software program for the design and documentation  of products in either two or three dimensional space.

 

CAE                                        (Computer Aided Engineering) A software method using the design data of CAD for the analysis of mechanical  attributes and behavior.  This is accomplished through the use of finite element analysis (FEA) software for determining mechanical strength and thermal analysis.

 

CAM                                        (Computer Aided Manufacturing) A software program that uses the design data of CAD to build tool paths, and similar manufacturing data for the purposes of creating the tooling to construct the product.

 

CastForm™                              Trade name for a polystyrene-based SLS material by DTM Corporation, primarily used for making investment casting patterns.

 

CE                                           (See Concurrent Engineering)

 

CEMCOM™                            A proprietary rapid tooling process based on stereolithography mold shells with a ceramic based material for back filling the mold shells by CEMCOM Incorporated.

 

children                                   1) The components of a design instance in a product structure tree.  Also referred to as parts.  2) Nodes in a database tree structure that have a parent. 3) Also refers to features in parametric modeling. These features are dependent on others for establishing location in space. If the parent features are changed drastically, the children can become “orphans”, or unassociated.

 

 

clean modeling                       Refers to the practice of removing geometry from a model that is not wanted or needed.  Also, refers to proper construction technique such as creating continuous surfaces, minimizing narrow faces, and avoiding small corner angles to facilitate downstream processes. (also known as post processing)

 

CMB                                       (Controlled Metal Buildup) A laser deposition processes commercialized by Albrecht Roders GmbH & Co KG.

 

CMET/Teijin Seiki                CMET Inc./Teijin Seiki  (RP OEM) A manufacturer of stereolithography equipment.  ( Japan )

 

CMM                                     (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.

 

CNC                                        (Computer Numerical Control) CNC capabilities are adaptable to a variety of machine tools.

 

coincidence                             Refers to geometry that occupies the same spatial location.  For example, coincident lines can have differing lengths while one occupies the same location as the other.

 

Compacted-powder SLS           Compacted-powder SLS by the University of Manchester .

 

compression                           Process of compacting digital data to reduce file size for electronic transmission of data archival.

 

Computer-Aided

Manufacturing of

Laminated Engineering

Materials (CAM-LEM)           Computer-Aided Manufacturing of Laminated Engineering Materials (CAM-LEM) by CAM-LEM Inc./ Case Western Reserve University

 

computer model                      A set of computer data representing a product or process and capable of being used to simulate the physical product or process behavior.

 

concept model                        A 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. 

 

concept optimization/

concept study                         A research approach that evaluates how specific product benefits or features contribute to a concept’s overall appeal to consumers.  Product development tasks that help determine unknowns about the market, technology, or production processes.

 

concurrent engineering          The organization of product design, development, production planning and procurement to take place, as far as possible, in parallel rather than in series.  The use of a project oriented team structure to include input from all concerned parties from a project’s conception.

 

conformal cooling                   Cooling lines in tool that follow the geometry of the part to be produces, which creates higher cooling rates and lower times.  Unattainable prior to rapid prototyping techniques, significant research and development efforts are being made to understand and device optimal cooling strategies.

 

Contour Crafting (CC)              Contour Crafting (CC) by Dr. Khoshnevis, University of Southern California

 

Buildup (CMB)                              Controlled Metal Buildup (CMB) by Fraunhofer IPT

 

Copper Polyamide™                A proprietary material offered by DTM corporation for the SLS process.  Used primarily to build soft tooling. Material has been discontinued with the release of LaserForm.™

 

corruption                               A condition in which model files or the modeling code itself becomes unstable.  Corruption may occur from various causes, most of which are internal system conflicts.

 

critical path scheduling          A project management technique which puts all important steps of a project into a sequential network based on task interdependencies.

 

Cubital                                    (RP OEM)  Cubital, Ltd.  A manufacturer of solid ground curing equipment. This process uses a photopolymer resin with a wax type support structure. ( Israel ) The  Cubital Solider 4600 and 5600 systems based on Solid Ground Curing (SGC)  technology.

 

Curved-layer LOM                     Curved-layer LOM by University of Dayton and Helisys Inc. Process enables the layer on pre-impregnated composite materials on a 3 D form.

 

cutting plane                           A tool that slices through the 3D data exhibiting characteristics of a plane in the data, including scalar and vector measurements.

 

CSG                                        (Constructive Solids Geometry) It is a CAD modeling technique that uses a hierarchical representation of instances of solids and combination operations (union, intersection, difference).

 

CT scan                                  (Computerized Tomography) 1) A scanning system based on X-Ray technology used to reverse engineer or dimensionally verify fabricated 3D geometry. 2) X-Ray based volumetric scanning used for solid objects (e.g. bone in humans, but also industrial components) with internal features.

 

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Denken                                              Solid Laser Diode Plotter System (SLP)

 

Denken Engineering                  Denken Engineering Bench-top stereolithography (written in Japanese).

 

Design-Controlled

Automated Fabrication

(DESCAF)                                        Light Sculpting Inc.

 

DFM                                       (Design for Manufacture) A process to insure the part designs can be manufactured regardless of the process. The objective is to maximize the process rate and minimize the cost to produce.

 

DFA                                        (Design for Assembly) The application of a design philosophy to insure that parts and part designs are optimized for use in the assembly process. This step is important when automated assembly equipment is used to insure parts can be handled, oriented and positioned accurately.

 

digital modeling                      The concept of holding the master product design definition in purely digital form;  the total information set required to specify and document the product.  Related terms include virtual prototyping, virtual product development, soft prototyping and electronic product development.

 

Direct AIM™   tooling            Injection-mold tooling produced directly from a stereolithography process. (ACES Injection Molding)

 

Direct Light Fabrication        Direct Light Fabrication by University of Birmingham 's School of Metallurgy and Materials

 

Direct Light Fabrication

(DLF)                                      Direct Light Fabrication (DLF) by Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

Direct Metal Deposition      

(DMD)                                               Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) by Precision Optical Manufacturing (POM)/The University of Michigan

                                                www.pom.net

 

Direct Metal Fabrication

(DMF)                                    Direct Metal Fabrication (DMF) by Rockwell International/Ennex Fabrication Technologies

 

Direct Metal Laser

Sintering (DMLS)                  Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) by EOS

 

Direct Photo Shaping

(DPS)                                      Direct Photo Shaping (DPS) by SRI International

 

Direct Shell Production

Casting (DSPC)                      Direct Shell Production Casting (DSPC) by Soligen

 

 

 

Direct Tool                             A process from EOS for creating molds and dies by the direct laser sintering of metal.

 

divergent thinking                  Technique used in the initial phase of idea generation which expands thinking processes to record a high volume of new or interesting ideas

 

DMLS                                    (Direct Metal Laser Sintering)  The name given to the process of metal sintering by EOS.

 

documentation                        A generic term for a wide variety of hardcopy or on-line reports, drawings, etc. to be used in any aspect of design or fabrication of a part or product.

 

DOD Jet                                 (Drop-on-Demand Jet) An ink jet methodology, now incorporated in rapid prototyping systems, where the material is deposited in an non-continuous stream.  Deops are produced and deposited only as required.

 

DOE                                        (Design of Experiments) A methodology for running a statistically significant battery of tests  (or computer simulations) on a design to determine its sensitivity or robustness to design or manufacturing variations.

 

dot pitch                                  Dot pitch is the space between pixels.  The smaller the number, the sharper the image. A measure of resolution.

 

dpi (dots per inch)                  A measure or resolution where dots are equated to pixels.

 

drawing conversion                The process of moving engineering data from hardcopy or raster format to CAD format.

 

Droplet Welding (DROW)      Droplet Welding (DROW) by AeroChem Research Laboratory, Division of Titan Corp.

 

DSM Somos™                                 (OEM) DSM Somosâ, part of DSM Desotech, makes materials for RP systmes.  International chemical and materials producer.  DSM Somos

 

DSPC                                      (Direct Shell Production Casting)  A process that involves depositing liquid binder onto ceramic powder to form shell molds for investment casting.  Invented at MIT, and commercialized by Soligen.

 

DTM Corporation                  (RP OEM)   DTM Corporation  Manufacturer of Selective Laser Sintering, (SLS â) equipment under the Sinterstation™ brand name.  ( U.S. )

 

DXF                                        (Drawing Exchange File)  A file format that allows for transfer of CAD data among dissimilar systems. Originally devised by Autodeskâ for the AutoCADâ software program.

 

Dynamic Tooling                          PolySteel toolmaking process.

 

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E-DARTS                               A stereolithography system from Autostrade .

 

EDM                 &nb