| A |
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| AC/DC |
Alternating
Current / Direct Current: The two different types of electrical
current. |
| Alloy |
A
mixture of two or more metals, elements |
Annual
Pricing
see Spot-Buy |
Norstan
provides two types of pricing (blanket orders are considered
annual pricing), annual and spot buy. Annual is when we price
a part that the customer doesn’t take the entire quantity
of in less than 90 days. It’s more expensive per piece
simply because we have to either set-up more than one time or
make them all and stock them for the customer. 1MM annual usually
requires 4 set-ups to complete order. |
| Anneal |
A
process to soften metal/alloy by elevating it’s temperature. |
| Assembly,Contact |
An
electrical contact and components assembled as a unit. |
Auto-stake
see Hand Stake |
or
auto assembly - A process where by a rivet is installed into
a stamping where force s are applied to the shank, expanding
it firmly into position. Used mainly of higher volume runs. |
| B |
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| Backing |
A
base metal component that is attached to a contact material
which allows easy attachment to an assembly. |
| Base
metals |
Aluminum,
copper, steel, nickel is considered base metals in our industries.
Usually inexpensive and chosen for specific properties they
have. |
| Benchmarking |
A
technique used to determine "best" practices for a
particular process or product. |
| Bi-metal |
A
material comprised of a contact material and a base metal to
serve in a electrical location. |
| Blade(s) |
A
base metal type stamping designed to allow attachment of an
electrical contact. They may be firm or flexible metals. |
| Blanket
Order |
An
ongoing commitment to purchase a specific part which releases
are pulled against. Pricing is similar to annual orders but
the same P.O. number may be used in subsequent years. |
| Bond(ing) |
A
metallurgical process of joining materials together. |
| Brazing
Metal Alloy |
A
low melting point metal/alloy used to attach, metallurgically
fuses, two metals together after elevating the temperature beyond
it’s melting point. |
| Brazed
Composite |
A
finished contact assembly attached in a brazing furnace. |
Burr
see Flash |
Undesirable
piece of material extending beyond the surface of the part.
|
| Button(s) |
The
term given to describe a contact that has no shank and is brazed
or welded to another part. |
| C |
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| CAD |
Computer
Aided Design. A graphical method of design/development for a
part and specification using a computer for communication and
data storage. |
| Calibration |
A
set of operations which compare values taken from a piece of
inspection, measuring and testing equipment or a gage to a known
standard under specified condition. |
| CDA |
Copper
Development Association an association based in New York that
sets standards for the industry. Common materials we make rivets
or contacts from would be the CDA 110 (ETP= Electrolytic Tough
Pitch) and CDA102 (OFHC) |
| CIF |
Cost
Insurance & Freight |
| Chamfer |
An
angled broken corner on a part. |
| Clad(ing)
metal |
Combining
or layering metals to achieve specific characteristics while
reducing when possible the use of precious or expense materials. |
| CNC |
Computer
Numerical Controlled. Machinery following electronic commands
to improve precision and productivity. |
| Coin(ing) |
A
finish forming process, using a stamping process with a die,
to refine feature specifications to drawing compliance. |
| Cold
form/head |
A
process of forming or changing a materials shape below it’s
melting point using at room temperature. |
| Composite |
An
electrical contact comprised of two of more materials. |
| Concave |
A
dishing effect (outside surface). Opposite of convex |
| Concentricity
|
The
relationship of two circular features. |
| Conductivity
|
A
materials ability to successfully allow current flow. |
| Contact |
Two
contact materials positioned to allow a make/break action providing
an on/off condition. |
| Contactors |
Mechanical
devices used to control switching of power to devices. |
| Control
Plan |
Written
descriptions of the systems controlling parts and processes. |
| Corrective
Action |
Action
taken to eliminate the causes of an existing nonconformity or
other undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence. |
| Corrective
Act.Plan |
A
Document that specifies actions to be implemented for correcting
a process or part quality issue, with responsibilities and target
dates assigned |
| Convex |
Bubble
or spherical formed (outside surface). Opposite of concave |
| Cpk |
Centering
& spread of the process. A statistical measuring method
that is prevention based to provide a zero defect system. 1.65
is a good Cpk |
| Cross-section |
A
cut-a-way view to observe a section of the part. |
| Crown |
That
section of the head contained in a convex/concave portion of
a contact surface. |
| D |
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| Density |
The
mass of a substance per unit volume. |
| Die |
A
machine made tool (on a lathe) that is used to form parts in
it usually by material being fed into it forcing the material
to form inside it’s cavities. |
| Disc(s) |
A
part (Norstan makes) that has no shank and is primarily used
to be welded, brazed to a backing. |
| Diffuse |
A
process requiring heating in a furnace so the electroplating
on the part absorbs into contact material. |
| Dock-to-stock |
Describes
the process of sending parts from a vendor to a customer without
them inspecting the parts, going to their stock to be pulled
and used as needed. Generally only the best suppliers achieve
this status. |
| Double
Upset |
A
forming process of squeezing (staking) in a die the end of a
rivet into a form similar to a contact in lieu of just clinching
it to a blade. |
| Ductile |
Or
ductility - The workability of a material. The Higher the ductility
the easier the material is to work into desired forms. |
| Drawing
Wire |
Reducing
the diameter of wire by pulling it through (hence draw) a die
of a smaller size than the current diameter. Materials vary
in their ability to be drawn to certain sizes as well as the
characteristics may change e.g. becomes harder and less ductile.
This sometimes is a good thing for certain types of heading
applications. |
| E |
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| EAU
|
Estimated
annual usage |
| EDI |
Electronic
Data Transfer. Electronically sending and or receiving information
from someone through a proprietary network over phone lines.
Used to provide releases of parts and check where parts are
in the process. |
| Electromechanical |
A
term describing a mechanical configurations or devices that
would use contacts to move electrical energy from one point
to another. |
| Erosion |
A
physical characteristic of material wearing away from either
side of a contact. Can occurred due to electrical, electrical
arc or mechanical forces. |
| ETP |
Electrolytic
Tough Pitch a specific blend of copper material (CDA 110 with
oxygen) purchased in wire form to make rivets and contacts from. |
| Expediting |
Customers
will many times call to move up their ship dates and it’s
called expediting. Sometimes there are additional costs (overtime,
material shipping charges etc.) to do this for them. Those are
called expediting charges. |
| F |
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Factors
see Markets |
The
number for each part that represents the weight in troy ounces
of precious metal (per thousands parts) that is used to calculated
final selling price. |
| Ferrous |
A
metal that contains iron (Fe) and may be magnetic depends on
the amount of iron present. |
| Fillet |
Material
that fills in under the head of a rivet at the point it meets
the shank. |
| Fine
silver |
abbrv.
FS or N-100 ; For electrical contacts silver comes in three
types .999, .9995 and .9999 |
Flash
see Burr |
Material
on the edge of the head of the contact that protrudes past it’s
intended area. |
| Flat(ness) |
The
degree a continuous horizontal surface approaches a plane. |
| FMEA |
Failure
Mode and Effects Analysis A systematized group of activities
intended to: 1) recognize and evaluate the potential failure
of a product/process and it’s effects, 2) identify actions
which could eliminate or reduce the change of the potential
failure, and 3) document the process. |
| Forge |
A
mechanical process (cold or hot) of forming a part in a die
distributing it’s mass into another desired dimension. |
| G |
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| GFI
– GFCI |
Ground
Fault Interrupt (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt) devices that
are designed to protect people from electrical shock by disconnecting
the electrical power at the plug-in source or circuit breaker.
We make contacts for company’s that manufacture these devices. |
| German
Silver |
It
actually has no silver in it 55%Cu, 15% Zn, 20%Ni or 65%Cu,
17% Zn, 18%Ni depends on who’s making it. |
| Grain |
A
term to describe the geometric pattern or sizing of the groups
of atoms that make up a material. |
| H |
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| Head
Diameter |
Or
HD is the distance (measured in thousands of inch or millimeters)
across the diameter of the head of the part. |
| Head
thickness |
Or
HT is the distance (measured in thousands of inch or millimeters)
from the top of the head (peak of any crown or radius) to the
underside of the head. |
| Head(ing) |
Short
for "cold heading", a process using wire (not above
room temperature hence considered "cold") and forming
it by moving or reshaping it’s mass in a die by striking
it with tooling pieces called cones and hammers. |
| Hot-bond |
A
process fusing materials together during a heading operation
that uses electrical current to melt dissimilar metals together
to achieve a bond that can not usually be done successfully
in a cold headed process. Cold heading equipment is usually
modified to handle this process. |
| I |
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| ISO
9000 |
International
Standards Organization, which sets up a certification program
that manufactures, can become certified in. The number signifies
the type of certification 9002=manufacturing, 9001=engineering |
| I.D.
Mark |
Specific
physical feature put onto a part during manufacture to distinguish
who made it or assembly orientation. |
| Indent |
A
small pointed shaped hole pushed into the shank of a rivet or
contact allowing a better or more secure upset when staking
to a blade or backing. |
| Interlock |
A
specific switch designed to shut down an apparatus (like a door
being opened or a lid raised) for safety and to avoid personnel
injury. |
| J |
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| JIT |
Just
In Time, a process of getting parts to a customer within a specific
time frame that they would use them on their manufacturing line.
Manufacturing to shipping of parts is prescheduled to meet deadlines
that can be a close as one day and was developed to reduce the
space needed and cost of storing parts to be used on an assembly
line. |
| K |
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| Kanban |
Kanban
is a control system, which offers the opportunity to delegate
routine material transactions on the shopfloor. Another goal
also is reducing excess inventory in the system. |
| L |
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| Lead-time |
The
amount of time to produce an order from receipt of order to
shipping. Quoted lead-time is the estimated time it will take
to process the order and deliver goods at the time the quotation
was made. |
| Line
card |
Usually
describes a single sheet document that summarizes a manufacturer’s
representative (rep) product lines handled. Many times reps
will have multiple lines (not in the same category) of products
the sell. |
| Loupe
|
A
magnifying glass used to view parts that clip to a pair of eye
glasses. |
| Lot
Charge |
Agreed
on $ amount for a specified amount of parts with a 10% plus
or minus amount variance |
| M |
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| Machine
Composite |
A
part made out of silver (or certain silver alloys) cold bonded
in a special machine to a copper shank rivet backing. Norstan,
Inc. refers to them by our trade name of NICO-BOND. |
| Make-Break |
The
name given to the process of a movable contact touching (making)
and pulling away from (breaking) another contact. |
Market
see Factor |
The
cost of the contact material in a quoted part e.g. silver @$6.00
per ounce. All of our precious metal parts are quoted at a certain
market with a factor so the fluctuation in the pricing for the
final cost can be calculated. |
| Melt |
The
process of liquefying the contact material metal in a furnace
to make it cover the face of the part or backing without a brazing
wafer. |
| Mic
Block |
A
small metal tool used with a known thickness to measure head
thickness of parts. |
| MRP |
Manufacturing
a system usually software based that is used to track and schedule
shop floor requirements and provide pricing information. |
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