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C2  ·  24 words

Plastics engineering

From pellets to finished part: moulds, machines, materials and the defects that give a process away.

Tempern is a word German borrowed from English, and its meaning moved on the way. Foundries took it from « to temper » for the long glowing that turns brittle white cast iron into a malleable one, still called der Temperguss. Plastics engineers then took the foundry word for a heat treatment of their own: a moulded part is held for hours at a raised temperature, well short of melting, so that the stresses frozen into it during fast cooling can relax. In English that treatment is annealing. « Tempering », in English workshop use, means reheating hardened steel to trade a little hardness for toughness, and German calls that anlassen. So die Gehäuse werden getempert means that the housings are annealed, and translating it as « tempered » sends a plastics reader to the wrong furnace.

The words

Verb (4)

plastifizierento plasticate (melt and homogenise)VerbC2
Die Schnecke plastifiziert das Material, während das Werkzeug noch geschlossen ist und das letzte Teil abkühlt.The screw plasticates the material while the mould is still closed and the last part is cooling.

Past participle without ge-: plastifiziert.

vernetzento crosslinkVerbC2
Beim Aushärten vernetzen die Molekülketten zu einem dreidimensionalen Netz.During curing the molecular chains crosslink into a three-dimensional network.

Also, outside chemistry: to network, to connect (sich vernetzen).

aushärtento cure, to harden fullyVerbC2
Das Harz härtet bei Raumtemperatur in etwa einem Tag aus.At room temperature the resin cures in about a day.

Separable: härtet aus, ausgehärtet.

tempernto anneal (a moulded part)VerbC2
Die Teile werden nach dem Spritzen getempert, damit sich die inneren Spannungen abbauen.After moulding the parts are annealed so that the internal stresses relax.

Not to temper: tempering steel is anlassen.

This list belongs to Technology and the news — 45 lists and 1598 words that can also be practised as a whole.

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