Eduqas GCSE Design and Technology key terms

The decisions consumers make about which products to buy, influenced by their needs, preferences and the technologies available.

Legal protections for people buying goods, services and digital content.

The situation within which something exists or happens. In designing, it provides the starting point and circumstances that influence possible outcomes.

The users, tasks and environment associated with how a product will be used.

A fibre forming a long, continuous length, rather than a short staple length.

Manufacture on a heavily automated production line intended to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The internal layer or structure of a board, between its outer faces.

Sewing thread made with a continuous filament core surrounded by a covering of short fibres, combining the properties of the core and covering.

A yarn with a central core surrounded by other fibres; an elastane core provides stretch and recovery.

The gradual deterioration of a metal through chemical reactions with its surroundings. Rusting is the corrosion of iron or steel.

Board with a wavy, fluted paper layer between flat outer liners.

Forming a sheet into repeated waves or ridges. In corrugated board, a fluted core is bonded between flat liner sheets.

Transferring a wet handmade paper sheet from its mould onto a supporting felt.

A smooth cloth that supports a wet handmade paper sheet after moulding and during pressing.

A hole enlarged at its opening by a cylindrical, flat-bottomed recess.

A hole with a flared, sloping recess at its opening that allows a matching screw head to sit flush with the surface.

A horizontal row of loops in a knitted fabric.

An approach that considers a product’s environmental impacts from obtaining its raw materials to its final disposal.

A mechanism linking an off-centre rotating crank to a guided slider through a connecting rod, converting rotary motion into reciprocating motion, or vice versa.

Indenting paper or board along an intended fold line so that it bends accurately with less cracking.

Trimming unwanted material from a printed sheet to produce the required final dimensions.

The shape exposed by cutting across a material, perpendicular to its length.

The area exposed by an imaginary cut across a component, perpendicular to its length.

Hardening a coating through a chemical or physical process, such as the application of heat or ultraviolet light.

The rate of flow of electric charge, measured in amperes (A).

A component placed in series with another component to restrict the current flowing through it.

A list recording the quantity, material and dimensions of every part to be cut for a product.