Metal Manufacturing Language

Just like in many industries, the metal manufacturing industry has its own jargon. Whether you are looking into working in the metal fabrication industry, or you are having metal parts manufactured, it’s good to become familiar with some of the manufacturing language. So lets get started!

Manufacturing Acronyms

One thing that the manufacturing world is known for is using acronyms. In the complex world of metal fabrication, using acronyms for numerous things can help to lighten the load so to speak. We recommend visiting our manufacturing industry acronyms page to better familiarize yourself with the never-ending list. As you will notice, acronyms aren’t only used for the actual manufacturing processes, but also for the quoting, purchasing, inspection, and engineering processes. Therefore, everyone that is involved with these stages should become familiar with these acronyms.

Pronunciation of Decimals

Another aspect of the metal manufacturing industry language that we run into is the pronunciation of decimals when it comes to dimensions and material thickness. To better understand the pronunciation of dimensions that are decimals, you will have to completely ignore what you learned in grade school. Metal manufacturing doesn’t follow the rules of “tenths,” “hundredths,” or “thousandths.” Sounds crazy right? Below are a list of dimensions along with their pronunciations. Sometimes, there can be more than one way to say a decimal dimension.

  • .005 – “five thousandths” or “five thou (for short)”
  • .036 – “oh thirty six” or “thirty six thousandths” or “thirty six thou (for short)”
  • .090 – “oh ninety” or “ninety thousandths” or “ninety thou (for short)”
  • .100 – “hundred thousandths” or “hundred thou (for short)”
  • .750 – “seven fifty” or “seven hundred and fifty thousandths” or “seven hundred and fifty thou (for short)

Basically, every dimension that doesn’t have a number in front of the decimal (as shown in the above examples) is known as thousandths. Reason being is that dimensions go out 3 places (thousandths), and therefore is always referred to as thousandths. Even if the number doesn’t go all the way out to three places like .09 or .75, it would still be pronounced the same as the above examples.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the acronyms and the proper pronunciation of decimal dimensions, you will be able to better communication with those who are in the industry. To learn more about the industry, be sure to browse through VIP’s website and take a look at the videos. Thanks for reading along and be sure to stay tuned for our next blog post!

 

 

Leave a Reply