Terms starting with R

Reflectance factor of a pad so thick that adding more sheets no longer changes the reading.

Rust and oxidation inhibited: a lightly additized oil with no antiwear or EP chemistry.

Remove and replace: cutting out old sealant completely and installing new sealant in the cleaned joint. Shop talk

Share of the variation in a response that a regression model accounts for, on a scale from 0 to 1.

Reflectance factor of one sheet measured over a black cavity, the starting point for every opacity calculation.

Notation for diffuse blue reflectance factor at an effective wavelength of 457 nm, the quantity behind brightness.

The color rendering score for a strong saturated red sample, not included in the general CRI average.

A straight bar with gear teeth along it, which turns a pinion's rotation into straight-line travel.

To wind a withdrawable breaker out of its connected position in metal-clad switchgear to isolate it. Shop talk

The racks, hooks and fixtures that carry parts through the line, and the job of arranging parts on them.

Short for radiator, especially the cast iron column or tube radiators of steam and hot water systems. Shop talk

Yellow and magenta rope, ribbon or chain used to mark the boundary of a radiological area. Shop talk

A person trained and qualified to work unescorted in radiologically controlled areas. Shop talk

Radiological controls: the radiation protection function, its rules and its technicians, in Navy and government usage. Shop talk

Measurement of optical radiation in physical energy units such as watts, without weighting for human vision.

Radioactive waste produced by nuclear facilities, and the plant department that processes and ships it.

A wall design with cladding held off the WRB by a vented, drained gap so water can escape and the wall can dry.

A flange facing where the gasket surface stands slightly proud of the bolt circle area, concentrating gasket load.

Cutting and clearing old sealant or mortar out of a joint so it can be refilled. Shop talk

A paving laborer who works behind the screed with a lute, fixing joints, edges and handwork. Shop talk

Drier, granular refractory mix compacted in layers with a pneumatic rammer to build dense linings.

The heat-up time a part needs in the oven before it reaches cure temperature and the cure clock starts. Shop talk

Error component that scatters readings up and down without pattern, so no two repeat readings agree exactly.

Running experimental trials in a random order so unknown time trends and nuisance effects do not bias the results.

The ratio of the largest to the smallest flow a control valve can regulate while keeping its characteristic.

Reclaimed asphalt pavement: old asphalt milled or crushed and fed back into new mix as aggregate and binder.

Tangle of straight unrouted connection lines a layout tool draws between pads that belong to the same net. Shop talk

A thin layer of lean concrete over dirt that gives a clean working surface or seals a crawlspace floor. Shop talk

Test that isolates a pumped chamber and tracks how fast the pressure climbs, to estimate leaks and outgassing.

Group of measurements chosen so that only routine, short-term variation can occur within it.

A clattering noise from unloaded gears bouncing back and forth inside their backlash. Shop talk

Shop nickname for an impact wrench, from the hammering racket it makes running fasteners on and off. Shop talk

Hobo and old-head slang for a freight train, especially one banging along with its slack running in and out. Shop talk

Loss of aggregate from the pavement surface as the binder lets go of the stone.

The distance from a beam's waist to where its cross-sectional area has doubled, a measure of depth of focus.

Residual current device: trips when the current going out on the live conductors does not all come back.

Extent of line or network a distance relay zone is set to cover, expressed as an impedance.

Power that surges back and forth between the source and the fields of inductors and capacitors, doing no net work.

A measure of how far a reactor is from criticality, positive when power will rise and negative when it will fall.

Deformed steel bar cast into concrete to carry the tension that plain concrete cannot.

Material that bounces off the wall during gunning instead of sticking, wasted and often harmful.

The system that schedules instruments back for calibration before their due date, and the act of calling them in. Shop talk

A reference fiber attached at the far end of a link so an OTDR can measure the loss of the last connector.

Shop word for the stored program of temperatures, times and atmosphere setpoints that runs a furnace cycle. Shop talk

The machine that moves automatic guns up and down so they sweep the full height of parts passing on the line.

Oversprayed powder collected from the booth and fed back into the system for reuse.

A second coat of powder over a cured first coat, used to fix rejects or build a multi-coat system.

Removing refrigerant from a system into a recovery cylinder instead of venting it to the atmosphere.

Finding an existing bench mark in the field, checking its condition and reporting it as found, damaged or lost.

A distribution giving equal likelihood to every value between two limits, used when only the bounds are known.

Transformer-rectifier unit that turns AC power into adjustable DC current for an impressed current CP system.

Plastic anti-short bushing pushed into the cut end of armored cable to shield wires from the sharp armor edge. Shop talk

Installer slang for a visual fault locator and the red laser it puts into the fiber. Shop talk

Shell area glowing visibly red from lining loss, the signal to take a kiln or vessel out of service. Shop talk

Failed inspection notice, or the act of an inspector failing work so it must be fixed and reinspected. Shop talk

A reject tag marking an instrument as unfit for use, or the act of pulling one from service with it. Shop talk

Rust-colored tap or process water carrying iron corrosion products shed from pipes and mains. Shop talk

A fitting that joins a larger pipe to a smaller one, either on a common centerline or with one side flat.

Number that divides a geosynthetic's index strength to allow for creep, installation damage or degradation in service.

Providing more components or trains than needed, so a safety function survives if one fails.

Winding station at the end of the paper machine, and the full-width roll of paper wound there.

Strip of paper torn across the full width of a finished reel for lab testing before the reel is released. Shop talk

Reference designator: the label such as R12 or U3 that names one part on the schematic, board and BOM. Shop talk

Electrode with a stable, known potential that serves as the fixed zero for measuring structure potentials.

A lab's highest-level standard for a quantity, used only to calibrate other standards and never for routine work.

Certified material with assigned reflectance values that transfers a measurement scale to a working instrument.

A tide or current station with its own harmonic constants, for which full daily predictions are published.

The standard temperature at which a quantity is specified, 20 degrees C for dimensional measurements.

The fraction of light reflected by a single event such as a connector, in dB, where more negative is better.

How much light a sample sends back compared with an ideal white diffuser lit and viewed the same way.

Cracks in an overlay that mirror the cracks or joints in the old pavement underneath.

Soldering surface mount parts by melting printed solder paste in an oven that follows a set temperature profile.

The bending of sonar beams as they cross water layers with different sound speeds, which distorts depths if uncorrected.

Ability of a material to withstand high temperature without softening or melting.

Non-metallic material built to keep its shape and strength at furnace temperatures while resisting slag, metal and gas.

Fine refractory mix used to lay and bond firebrick, either heat-setting, air-setting or phosphate-bonded.

The working fluid that carries heat around a refrigeration or air conditioning system by boiling and condensing.

The loop of compression, condensing, expansion and evaporation that moves heat from a cold space to a warmer one.

Clipped form of regenerative amplifier, the cavity that traps a seed pulse for many passes of gain before releasing it. Shop talk

Clipped form of regeneration: warming a cryopump to drive off the gas it has captured, then cooling it again. Shop talk

A supply or return grille fitted with a damper so its airflow can be adjusted or shut off.

Fitting an equation that predicts a response from one or more input variables, usually by least squares.

To harden a part again after it misses hardness, usually after normalizing or annealing it first. Shop talk

Running a power tool on a fastener that is already tight, giving a false good reading or extra torque. Shop talk

Using the tensile strength of a geosynthetic to hold soil together so it can stand steeper or carry more load.

The moisture in air as a percentage of what would saturate it at the same temperature, the number a humidistat shows.

The long-term rate of change in mean sea level at a gauge, including both ocean rise and land motion.

A spray applied to truck beds and tools so hot mix does not stick, used in place of diesel fuel.

The silicone-coated paper or film that protects a tape or label adhesive until it is peeled off for use.

The pressure-relief valve on a hot water boiler, rated in Btu per hour and set at or below the boiler's maximum pressure.

A spring-loaded valve for liquid service that opens gradually as pressure rises past its set point.

Replacement of a worn refractory lining, in full or in zones, at the end of a campaign.

The US customary unit of dose equivalent, equal to one hundredth of a sievert.

Radioactive contamination that can be transferred by wiping or touching, as opposed to fixed contamination.

Clipped form of repetition rate: how many pulses per second a pulsed laser emits. Shop talk

To pull the old packing out of a valve stuffing box and install a new set of rings. Shop talk

How tightly readings bunch when one person repeats a measurement with the same setup, in one place, in one short sitting.

Scatter in the readings when one person and one gauge measure the same part over and over with nothing else changed.

Independent rerun of the same factor settings from scratch, which gives a true estimate of experimental error.

Raking out deteriorated mortar joints in masonry and refilling them with new mortar.

Polymer recovered from trim, start-up waste and off-spec fabric, repelletized and fed back to the extruders. Shop talk

How well results on the same item agree when the lab, operator, equipment or day is changed on purpose.

Variation in measurement results when different operators, gauges or setups measure the same items.

Difference between an observed value and the value a fitted model predicts for it.

The observed water level minus the predicted tide, showing the effect of weather, rivers and other non-tidal causes.

Stress locked into a coating and substrate after spraying, from splat shrinkage, cooling and impact.

Joining overlapping sheets by clamping them between electrodes and passing a large current through them.

The finest step an instrument can display, such as one count of the last digit on a digital readout.

Rating of a fractional factorial design, in Roman numerals, that states which effects are aliased with which.

The arrangement of mirrors that sends light back and forth through the gain medium to build up laser oscillation.

Another fabrication round of a board, made to fix problems found in the previous version. Shop talk

A speed slow enough to stop within half the distance you can see, used whenever the track ahead may be occupied.

Austenite that fails to transform during the quench and survives at room temperature inside hardened steel.

An admixture that delays setting, used in hot weather, on long hauls and for big continuous placements.

Air drawn back from the conditioned space to the air handler to be filtered and conditioned again.

How much weaker reflected light is than the light sent in, in dB, where bigger numbers mean less reflection.

A lap installed the wrong way, with the lower layer over the upper, so water is channeled behind it. Shop talk

A tidal current that runs back and forth along one line, flood one way and ebb the other, with slack at each change.

The four-way valve in a heat pump that swaps which coil gets hot discharge gas, switching between heating and cooling.

Cured sealant breaking down and turning soft, sticky or gooey again with heat, sun or chemical attack.

Amount of liquid that comes back up through a topsheet under pressure after the pad has absorbed it.

Removing and replacing parts or fixing joints on an assembled board to correct defects or make changes.

Residual gas analyzer: a small mass spectrometer that identifies which gases remain in a vacuum chamber.

High-count cable in which fibers are bonded side by side into flat ribbons, usually 12 across, for mass splicing.

Long strings of rail welded together end to end and laid without bolted joints. Shop talk

Lab slang for the maximum specific gravity test on loose mix, and for the Gmm value it produces. Shop talk

Rhyme reminding that standard threads tighten when turned clockwise and loosen counterclockwise. Shop talk

Heavy-wall threaded steel conduit, the toughest raceway on site, used for services, exposed runs and hazardous areas. Shop talk

Board that combines rigid sections and flexible polyimide circuits in one laminated assembly.

Circular buildup of material inside a rotary kiln that dams the flow, or one circular course of lining brick.

Shop name for the hypoid final drive in a vehicle axle, named by its ratio, such as 3.73 or 4.10. Shop talk

To check continuity and identity of every core of a cable end to end before termination or after a fault. Shop talk

A yard track where carmen make light repairs to cars without sending them to a heavy shop. Shop talk

The photobiological safety class of a lamp or luminaire, from RG0 exempt to RG3 high risk.

A blind threaded insert crushed into a hole in sheet or tube so a screw can be fitted from one side. Shop talk

Root mean square: the effective value of an alternating quantity, giving the same heating as that DC value.

A square-socket screw drive, standard in Canadian construction, with color-coded bit and handle sizes.

Describes a product or process whose output stays on target despite variation in noise factors that cannot be controlled.

A rock whose top lies at about the level of chart datum, breaking the surface or just under it at low water.

The standard shop hardness test that presses a diamond or ball into a part and reads depth as a number.

To push a stiff fiberglass duct rodder through a conduit to prove the path or to carry a pull line through. Shop talk

Shop word for a stick welding electrode, as in burning rod or a box of 7018 rod. Shop talk

An ironworker who places and ties the reinforcing steel on concrete jobs. Shop talk

Installing backer rod into joints ahead of the sealant crew. Shop talk

A unit of exposure that measures how much X or gamma radiation ionises air.

Shop shorthand for high-frequency PTFE or ceramic-filled laminate, from the name of a major RF materials maker. Shop talk

To swap the two fibers of a duplex pair so transmit and receive line up with the far end. Shop talk

Rotation of a vessel about its fore-and-aft axis, measured to correct the angle of every sonar beam.

Shop name for rolling a production gear against a master gear to catch size errors, runout and nicks. Shop talk

The amount a loose mat drops in thickness as the rollers compact it. Shop talk

Nonwoven fabric sold in rolls to converters, as opposed to finished products made from it.

The planned number, order and coverage of roller passes needed to reach density across the full mat.

Brand name used for nonmetallic sheathed cable, the plastic-jacketed cable that wires most North American houses. Shop talk

The gap between members at the root of a joint, set during fit-up before welding.

The first weld pass in a joint, laid at the root, which sets the quality of everything above it.

Shop shorthand for dividing a rectangular limit by the square root of 3 to turn it into a standard uncertainty. Shop talk

Rotary lobe booster with two figure-eight rotors that adds large pumping speed between about 10 and 10⁻³ mbar.

Twisted bundle of fibers that forms in a carded or airlaid web and shows as a dense streak or knot. Shop talk

Shop name for a multi-flame oxyfuel heating tip used to preheat, bend and loosen parts. Shop talk

An offshore tidal current whose direction keeps swinging round the whole compass during each tidal cycle.

Oil-sealed positive displacement pump in which sliding vanes sweep gas around an off-centre rotor.

Stage of electrical work done before walls close: setting boxes, running cable or conduit and pulling wire.

To pump a vented chamber from atmosphere to crossover with the roughing pump, before the high vacuum valve opens. Shop talk

The pressure range from atmosphere down to about 1 mbar, where gas still flows like a fluid.

Pump that takes a chamber from atmosphere down to the pressure where the high vacuum pump can take over.

An interlaboratory comparison in which one artifact or sample travels from lab to lab to be measured by each. Shop talk

Describes a hex head, nut or socket recess whose corners have worn smooth so wrenches just slip. Shop talk

A radiation protection technician who surveys areas, covers jobs and enforces radiological controls. Shop talk

Rotating pressure vessel oxidation test, which rates how much oxidation life is left in an oil.

Response surface methodology: sequential experiments that fit curved models to find the settings that optimize a response.

Reinforced soil slope: an embankment built steeper than its fill could stand alone by layering geogrid or geotextile in it.

Root sum of squares, combining independent uncertainty contributions by squaring, adding and taking the square root.

Radiographic testing: imaging a weld's interior with X-rays or gamma rays on film or a digital detector.

Rolling thin-film oven: the short-term aging test that mimics what plant mixing and paving do to a binder.

Ring type joint: a flange face with a machined groove that holds a solid metal ring gasket for high pressure.

Real-time kinematic: GNSS positioning that uses carrier-phase corrections from a base station to reach centimetres live.

Rooftop unit: a packaged air conditioner, often with gas heat, that sits on a roof curb and ducts straight down into the building.

Room-temperature vulcanizing silicone, a rubbery adhesive-sealant that cures without heat, usually from air moisture.

A tool sliding over the work without taking a proper chip, usually because the feed is too light or the tool is dull. Shop talk

Refractoriness under load: the temperature at which a refractory starts to deform under a small steady load.

The operating rule banning alcohol and drugs on duty, and shorthand for breaking it. Shop talk

A rule of thumb for how much a tide rises or falls in each hour of a six-hour rise or fall. Shop talk

A low, throbbing combustion noise that sets the boiler and breeching vibrating, usually at one firing rate. Shop talk

Running a diesel locomotive in its highest throttle notch, wide open. Shop talk

Operating new gears at reduced load at first so surface high spots wear smooth before full duty.

The stretch before a survey line where the boat settles on course and speed before logging starts. Shop talk

Seven consecutive chart points on one side of the centerline, or steadily rising or falling, read as a process shift. Shop talk

One complete tightening cycle by a powered tool on an assembly line, from first thread to final torque or angle.

Booth talk for parameters that are overheating the particles or part; running cold is the opposite. Shop talk

Shop phrase for a bearing, gearbox or motor operating above its normal temperature. Shop talk

Early period when new contacting surfaces wear and smooth each other until they settle into a stable state.

Burning with too much fuel for the air available, so combustion is incomplete. Shop talk

Shop talk for a furnace atmosphere carrying more carbon than its setpoint and heading toward soot. Shop talk

How much the teeth wobble radially relative to the gear's axis, measured with a probe in each tooth space.

Flat length of geosynthetic between the crest of a slope and the anchor trench.

Swelling of rust between steel parts that pries joints apart, bows plates and pops rivets. Shop talk

Channel-shaped depressions that form in the wheel paths as the pavement deforms under repeated loads.

Radiation work permit: the document that sets radiological conditions, controls and dose limits for a specific job.