Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology key terms

Detailed examination of a product’s features and the reasons for them, used to identify successes, limitations and lessons for future design.

An expense involved in making a product, including its materials, components and manufacturing energy.

The stages a product passes through, from obtaining raw materials through processing, manufacture and use to its end-of-life treatment.

A set of requirements that a proposed product should meet and against which design ideas can be judged.

An observable or measurable characteristic of a substance.

A comparison of a part with the whole, often expressed as a fraction or percentage.

A diode connected across a coil to protect electronic components from the brief high voltage produced when the coil is switched off.

A textile designed to reduce a person's exposure to a particular hazard, such as heat, chemicals or impact.

A model made to test and evaluate a product’s design, construction or performance before the design is finalised.

An instrument with a graduated angular scale used to measure or draw angles.

Planed Square Edge: timber with smooth, planed faces and square edges. Merchants commonly use PSE and PAR for the same type of finished rectangular stock.

A grooved wheel mounted on a shaft that works with a belt to transmit rotary motion.

A mass of separated plant fibres used to manufacture paper and board; it can also be produced by reprocessing waste paper.

Making holes or cutouts in sheet metal by forcing a punch through it into a matching die, shearing out material.

A normally open switch that closes its contacts while pressed and opens them again when released.

Polyvinyl acetate: a water-based adhesive commonly used to bond porous timber surfaces. Standard grades are mainly suitable for dry indoor use.

Checking materials, components and finished products against agreed standards to identify faults.

Rapidly cooling heated metal, used in suitable heat treatments to increase hardness.

Stitching textile layers together, usually with wadding between a top fabric and backing, to create structure and texture.

A mechanism consisting of a straight toothed rack and a circular gear called a pinion, which converts between rotary and linear movement.

The sideways distortion of a frame, such as a rectangle changing into a parallelogram.

The distance from the centre of a circle to its edge, equal to half the diameter.

Pulling fibre ends out from a fabric's surface to form a soft, hairy layer called a nap.

A group of metallic elements used in electronic products, including in magnets and batteries. The abbreviation is REEs.

A hand tool with projecting teeth that cut away wood, particularly useful for shaping curves and irregular forms.

A specified operating limit that a component must not exceed, such as a resistor’s maximum power dissipation.

A comparison of quantities in a stated order. For example, $A:B=2:3$ means there are two units of A for every three units of B.