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Vocabulary terms for Topic 4 of IB Design Technology - SL
Absorbed moisture
The moisture within timber that is contained in the cells’ walls.
Additive techniques
Manufacturing techniques that add material in order to create it.
Aesthetic appeal
Favourable in terms of appearance.
Aesthetic characteristics
Aspects of a product that relate to taste, texture, smell, and appearance.
Air drying
Placing the stacks of sawn timber in the open or in large sheds hence there is little control over the drying process
Alloy
A mixture that contains at least one metal. This can be a mixture of metals or a mixture of metals and non-metals.
Assembly line production
A volume production process where products and components are moved continuously along a conveyor. As the product goes from one workstation to another, components are added until the final product is assembled.
Automated production
A volume production process involving machines controlled by computers
Batch production
Limited volume production (a set number of items to be produced).
Brittle
Breaks into numerous sharp shards.
Chemically inert
Lack of reactivity with other materials.
Composite
A material comprised of two or more constituent materials that have different properties. Has a material that is the matrix, or glue, and a reinforcement (fibers/sheet/particles)
Compressive strength
The ability of a material to withstand being pushed or squashed.
Continuous flow
A production method used to manufacture, produce, or process materials without interruption.
Craft production
A small-scale production process centered on manual skills.
Creep
The slow, permanent deformation of a solid material under the influence of mechanical stress.
Creosote
A material that penetrates the timber fibers protecting the integrity of the wood from attack from borer, woodlice, and fungal attack.
Cupping
A warp across the width of the face of the wood, in which the edges are higher or lower than the center.
Density
The mass per unit volume of a material. Its importance is in portability in terms of a product’s weight and size.
Design for assembly
Designing taking account of assembly at various levels, for example, component to component, components into sub-assemblies, and subassemblies into complete products.
Design for disassembly
Designing a product so that when it becomes obsolete it can easily and economically be taken apart, the components reused or repaired, and the materials recycled.
Design for manufacture
Designers design specifically for optimum use of existing manufacturing capability.
Design for materials
Designing in relation to materials during processing.
Design for process
Designing to enable the product to be manufactured using a specific manufacturing process, for example, injection molding.
Dry rot
When timber is subject to decay and attack by fungus.
Ductility
The ability of a material to be drawn or extruded into a wire or other extended shape. Elasticity
Electrical resistivity
The measure of a material's ability to conduct electricity; A material with low resistivity will conduct electricity well.
Electrorheostatic
This smart property relates to a fluid that can undergo a dramatic change in its viscosity when exposed to an electric field.
Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC)
Point at which the moisture content of wood achieves an equilibrium with the environment which can be affected by humidity and temperature.
Felting
A method for converting yarn into fabric by matting the fibres together.
First generation robots
A simple mechanical arm that has the ability to make precise motions at high speed. They need constant supervision by a human operator.
Free moisture
The moisture within timber that is contained within the cell cavities and intercellular spaces.
Glass
A hard, brittle, and typically transparent amorphous solid made by rapidly cooling a fusion of sand, soda, and lime.
Grain size (metals)
Can vary and be determined by heat treatment, particularly how quickly a metal is cooled. Quick cooling results in a small size, and slow cooling results in a large size. Can affect the density, tensile strength, and flexibility.
Hardness
The resistance a material offers to penetration or scratching.
Hardwood
The wood from a deciduous (broadleaved) tree.
Joining techniques
Methods that are used to join two similar or dissimilar materials together
Kiln seasoning
Thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, which produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes.
Knitting
A method for converting a yarn into fabric by creating consecutive rows of interlocking loops of yarn.
Knots
Imperfections in timber, caused by the growth of branches in the tree that reduces its strength.
Lacemaking
A method for creating a decorative fabric that is woven into symmetrical patterns and figures.
Laminated boards
Sheets of material made from layers of veneers (e.g. plywood).
Laminated object manufacture (LOM)
A rapid prototyping systems that creates a 3D product by converting it into slices, cutting the slices out and joining the slices together.
Lamination
Covering the surface of a material with a thin sheet of another material typically for protection, preservation or aesthetic reasons.
Load capacity (Robots)
The weight a robot can manipulate.
Machine to machine (M2M)
Wired and wireless communication between similar devices.
Man-made timber
AKA engineered wood or composite wood, these are wood products that are made by binding or fixing strands, particles of fibres, veneers of boards of wood together with adhesives or other fixing methods to create composite materials. Typical examples include MDF, plywood and chipboard.
Mass
Relates to the amount of matter that is contained with a specific material.
Mass customization
A sophisticated CIM system that manufactures products to individual customer orders. The benefits of economy of scale are gained whether the order is for a single item or for thousands.
Mass production
The production of large amounts of standardized products on production lines, permitting very high rates of production per worker.
Material selection charts
A chart used to identify appropriate materials based on the desired properties.
Mechanical properties
Properties of a material that involve the relationship between stress and strain or a reaction to an applied force.
Mechanized production
A volume production process involving machines controlled by humans.
Multi-task robots
A type of robot that can perform more than one task in a manufacturing environment.
Team of robots
Groups of robots carry out similar tasks
Natural fibers
Materials produced by plants or animals that can be spun into a thread, rope or filament.
Non-toxic
Absence of toxic breakdown products/lack of reactivity.
One off production
An individual (often craft-produced) article or a prototype for larger scale production.
Oxidization resistance
A property of a metal that means that it does not readily react with oxygen and degrade.
Paper based rapid prototyping
Often the first step in a rapid prototyping process, it is widely used in UCD for designing and testing interfaces.
Particle boards
A material made from different sizes of wood chips and joined with glue.
Physical properties
Any property that is measurable that describes a state of materials, for example, mass, weight, volume, and density. These properties tend to be characteristic of materials that can be identified through nondestructive testing
Piezoelectricity
A property of a smart material. This material gives off a small electrical discharge when deformed.
Plasticity
The ability of a material to be changed in shape permanently.
Pultrusion
A continuous manufacturing process used to create composite materials that have a constant cross
Reforestation
The process of restoring tree cover to areas where woodlands or forests once existed. If this area never returns to its original state of vegetative cover the destructive process is called deforestation.
Seasoning
The commercial drying of timber which reduces the moisture content of wood.
Shape memory alloys
Metals that when deformed, can spring back into their original shape once released.
Shaping techniques
Manufacturing methods for modifying the shape of a material.
Single task robots
Robots that can perform one task only.
Smart material
Materials that have been designed to have one or more properties that can be modified when subject to external stimuli in a way that the output can be controlled.
Stiffness
The resistance of an elastic body to deflection by an applied force.
Strain
The response of a material due to stress, defined as the change in length divided by the original length.
Stress
A force on a material divided by the cross-sectional area of that material.
Superalloys
An alloy that exhibits excellent mechanical strength, resistance to thermal creep deformation, good surface stability, and resistance to corrosion.
Synthetic fibers
Fibres made from a man-made material that are spun into a thread; the joining of monomers into polymers by the process of polymerization. Examples include polyester, acrylic, nylon, rayon, acetate, spandex, and Kevlar.
Tempering
A heat treating process designed to increase the toughness of an iron-based metal by heating it and allowing it to cool in air. It decreases the hardness of the material, which usually increases the ductility and decreases the brittleness.
Tensile strength
The ability of a material to withstand pulling forces.
Thermal conductivity
The measure of how fast heat is conducted through a slab of material with a given temperature difference across the slab.
Thermal expansion
A measure of the degree of increase in dimensions when an object is heated. This can be measured by an increase in length, area or volume.
Thermoelectrcity
This refers to a smart material that when heated can produce an electric current. This material is comprised of two dissimilar conductors.
Third generation robots
Autonomous robots that can operate largely without supervision from a human. They have their own central control unit. Swarms of smaller autonomous robots also fit in this category.
Toughness
The ability of a material to resist the propagation of cracks.
Transparency
Ability to allow light to be transmitted with minimal scattering allowing a clear view through the material.
Twisting
A distortion in which the two ends of a material do not lie on the same plane.
Volume
The quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by a boundary, for example, the space that a substance solid, liquid, gas, or shape occupies or contains.
Warping
A distortion in wood caused by uneven drying, which results in the material bending or twisting.
Wasting/subtractive techniques
Manufacturing techniques that cut away material in order to create a component.
Weaving
The act of forming a sheet-like material by interlacing long threads passing in one direction with others at a right angle to them.
Weight
Relies on mass and gravitational forces to provide measurable value.
Wood recycling
The process of turning waste timber into usable products.
Wood treatment
Involves using solutions to make wood poisonous to insects, fungus, and marine borers as well as protecting it from the weather.
Work envelope
A fixed 3D space where work activities take place, considering clearance and reach.
Work hardening
AKA strain hardening or cold working, this is the process of toughening a metal through plastic deformation.
Yarn
A long continuous length of interlocked synthetic or natural fibers.
Young's Modulus
A measure of the stiffness of an elastic material defined by stress/strain.
Kiln drying
Placing the stacks of sawn timber in a kiln, to reduce the moisture content in wood where the heat, air circulation, and humidity is closely controlled.
Second-Generation Robots
Robots that are equipped with sensors that can provide information about their surroundings. They can synchronize with each other and do not require constant supervision by a human; however, they are controlled by an external control unit.
Softwood
The wood from a coniferous (evergreen) tree.
Photochromicity
Having a reversible change of color when exposed to light; color-changing sunglass lenses
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